Northern Asia-Pacific

division

ADULT SABBATH SCHOOL BIBLE STUDY GUIDE

ATONEMENT AND THE CROSS OF CHRIST

SEVENTH-DAY

ADVENTIST CHURCH

O ct

■

Nov

■

D ec 2008

*EAQ081001*

Where legally possible, offerings will go to these projects; otherwise special arrangement will be made with the

General Conference for distribution of funds based on the laws of the countries where these offerings are collected.

ADULT

SABBATH SCHOOL

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE

Oct

■

Nov

■

Dec 2008

Mission Projects

Our Thirteenth Sabbath Offering this quarter will help the Northern Asia-Pacific

Division with these projects:

● Mongolia: Provide a dormitory for Adventist university students

● Japan: Plant a Chinese-language church in Tokyo

● Taiwan: Launch a Chinese-language television ministry in conjunction with

the Hope Channel

For more information, visit www.adventistmission.org

Unions Churches Members Population

Chinese Union Mission 959 353,703 1,341,715,000

Japan Union Conference 117 15,106 127,797,000

Korean Union Conference 697 192,915 71,610,000

Mongolian Mission Field 4 1,125 2,578,000

Totals* 1,777 562,624 1,543,700,000

Atonement

and the

Cross of Christ

●

*Totals from Seventh-day

Adventist Yearbook 2007

Map not drawn to scale

CHINA

MONGOLIA

NORTH

KOREA

SOUTH

KOREA

JAPAN

●

TAIWAN

Contents

Editorial Assistant

Tresa Beard

Pacific Press

Coordinator

Paul A. Hey

Art Director and Illustrator

Lars Justinen

Concept Design

Dever Design

Editorial Office 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904

Come visit us at our Web site: http://www.absg.adventist.org

Principal Contributor

Ángel Manuel Rodríguez

Editor

Clifford R. Goldstein

Associate Editor

Soraya Homayouni Parish

Publication Manager

Lea Alexander Greve

The Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide is prepared by the Office of the Adult

Bible Study Guide of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The

preparation of the guides is under the general direction of the Sabbath School

Publications Board, a subcommittee of the General Conference Administrative

Committee (ADCOM), publisher of the Bible study guides. The published guide

reflects the input of worldwide evaluation committees and the approval of the

Sabbath School Publications Board and thus does not solely or necessarily repre-

sent the intent of the author(s).

1 God’s Nature: The Basis of Atonement—September 27–October 3—6

2 Cosmic Crisis: The Disruption of God’s Established Order—

October 4–10————————————————————————14

3 The Fall Into Sin—October 11–17 ——————————————22

4 Atonement and the Divine Initiative—October 18–24 —————30

5 Atonement Announced—October 25–31———————————38

6 Atonement in Symbols: Part 1—November 1–7 ———————46

7 Atonement in Symbols: Part 2—November 8–14 ——————56

8 Born of a Woman—Atonement and the Incarnation—November

15–21———————————————————————————64

9 Metaphors of Salvation—November 22–28 ——————————72

10 Atonement at the Cross—November 29–December 5 —————80

11 Benefits of Christ’s Atoning Sacrifice—December 6–12 ————88

12 United to Christ—December 13–19 —————————————96

13 Atonement and Universal Harmony—December 20–26 ———104

When taken to the hospital, the old herdsman was sick, blind, and

dying. While he was there, his granddaughter came every day and read

to him; the old man enjoyed the soft sound of the child’s voice. One

day she found, in the room, a Bible left by a friend. She casually

opened to 1 John 1 and began to read. He listened attentively, and

when he heard the words “And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son

cleanseth us from all sin,” he interrupted her.

“Tell me,” he said, “is that really there?”

“Yes, Grandpa, it’s there.”

“Could you read it to me again?”

“ ‘And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son

cleanseth us from all sin.’ ”

For a few seconds there was silence; then he

asked, “Are you quite sure that’s there, in that book?”

“Yes, Grandpa, quite sure.”

“Please, take my hand and place my finger on that passage and read

it to me again.” As she did it, tears dripped down from his sightless

eyes, and his voice was heard speaking with difficulty but with great

assurance.

“My dear child . . . if anyone should ask you how I died, please tell

them that I died . . . cleansed.”

What this story shows is that the doctrine of atonement is not an

abstract theory of salvation; it is, rather, the saving power of God in

the lives of fallen, sinful beings.

What is atonement? In general, it could be said that the word atone-

ment refers to the remo

val of any hindrance to fellowship with God.

In a sense, atonement is the equivalent of reconciliation, but it also

includes the idea of expiation, a fancy word that portrays the idea of

removing any barrier that exists between God and us. The doctrine of

atonement emphasizes the sacrifice of Christ as the exclusive expiatory

means by which the barrier between us and God—which is sin—is

removed, leaving us reconciled to Him.

The Doctrine o

The atonement is

the biblical doctrine

around which all

others revolve.

The atonement, in fact, is the biblical doctrine around which all

others revolve. It is centered in Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascen-

sion, mediation, and return. It presupposes the presence of sin, our

fundamental and desperate need of salvation, and God’s loving dis-

position to save us.

A proper understanding of the biblical doctrine of God is also indis-

pensable for understanding the atonement. It was God’s love that

made it possible to restore us to union and fellowship with Him

through Jesus Christ. We should never give the impression that the

death of Christ was needed in order to persuade God to love us. God

sent Christ to die for us because He already loved us. The biblical doc-

trine of atonement is gr

ounded in God’s love for sinful and rebellious

creatures.

The fullness of the benefits of the atonement is enjoyed only by

those who, after being touched by the Holy Spirit, accept God’s offer

of salvation in Christ as the exclusive means of forgiveness and recon-

ciliation. Their hearts are possessed by love and gratitude to God and

Christ for this infinite sacrifice.

Thus, it’s our sincere hope that this quarter, as you study the mean-

ing of Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice, you will be moved toward a

greater commitment to the One who suffered so much for us, so that

whether you live or die, you can, like the old herdsman, do so in

peace.

Dr. Ángel M. Rodríguez, a native of Puerto Rico, is the director of the

Biblical R

esearch Institute at the General Conference headquarters, Silver

Spring, Maryland.

of Atonement

We’re all

God’s

children.

Some of

us just

don’t

know

Him yet.

Your mission

offerings help to

Tell the World.

www.AdventistMission.org

L ESSON

*September 27–October 3

God’s Nature: The Basis of

Atonement

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Ps. 139:1–4; Isa. 46:10;

John 1:4; Rom. 5:8; 8:37–39; 1 John 5:11, 12.

Memory Text:

“ ‘I make known the end from the beginning,

from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will

stand, and I will do all that I please’ ” (Isaiah 46:10, NIV).

Key Thought:

God’s work of salvation is a self-willed outflow of

His very nature; it does not require sinners to persuade Him to

love them.

here are many mysteries about God, things about Him, His

nature, His holiness, and His power, that we just cannot under-

stand. Yet, there is one aspect about Him that we can begin to

understand; namely, His love, a love manifested to us through His

Son’s redemptive work, a work that touches us at the individual and

personal level, a work that is the outgrowth of God’s own nature and

being.

This week we begin our study of the doctrine of salvation, and we

do so with the recognition that the driving force in our salvation is the

greatness and love of our God. Nothing outside God forced Him to do

what He did for us through His Son. Instead, it is because of His very

nature itself that He has poured out His love and grace toward this

fallen world.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 4.

SUNDAY

September 28

Eternal God

What

do the words “in the beginning God created . . .” (Gen. 1:1)

imply about the nature of God? Before you answer, read also

Genesis 21:33 and Psalm 90:2.

____________________________________________________________________

The concept of eternity is difficult for us to understand. We are

finite creatures (at least in this life). We know that we will die. In fact,

everything that we relate to is transitory: It’s here today but will one

day be gone. Everything in this world had a beginning and will have

an end. In contrast, the idea of God never having a beginning and

never having an end isn’t easy to understand, not with minds so used

to thinking in finite terms.

Read

Psalm 102:25–27. To whom is this passage applied in the New

Testament? (See Heb. 1:10–12.) What’s the message there, along

with Psalm 90:2, about the length of God’s existence?

____________________________________________________________________

Because God is eternal, because He existed before all created

things, He has to be self-existent. Creatures, in contrast, are not. We

all need air, water, and food to preserve our existence (Gen. 1:29),

while God needs nothing to exist. Throughout eternity, before He

made anything, there was nothing else apart from God. He therefore

existed by Himself, dependent upon nothing. He is life in Himself.

And only He who is life in Himself, the Eternal Self-existing One, can

restore life to repentant sinners. Created life, both now and for eter-

nity, all comes from God, the great Life-Giver (see John 1:4; 1 John

5:11, 12). We are dependent upon Him for everything.

Think about how dependent you are on God for your life here

and now. How much more so for eternal life? How should your

realization of this dependence help foster in you a sense of

humility? Why is arrogance such a repulsive trait in the eyes of

God?

MONDAY

September 29

A Loving God

The mystery of God lies beyond our full understanding. He is not

an object that we can find by ourselves (Job 11:7). The Bible does not

give us a systematic and philosophical description of His being. It

presents a God who reveals Himself through His actions, through the

way He relates to us. We come to know who He is by what He tells us

about Himself; otherwise we would know little about Him.

The Scriptures tell us that God is by nature love; that is to say, the

essence of His being is self-giving, and this is expressed in concern

for the well-being of others.

What

do the following texts tell us about the character and nature of

God? Ps. 118:1–4; Rom. 5:8; 8:37–39; 1 John 4:8, 9, 16.

____________________________________________________________________

The statement “God is love” takes us into the core of the divine and

tells us (1) “God is love” means that an exploration into God’s essence

would reveal that it is, by nature, love. This understanding of the

nature of God is of extreme importance in the doctrine of atonement.

(2) “God is love” means that He is a relational Being; He enjoys by

nature fellowshiping with His creatures. It is precisely in that personal

interaction that He reveals His love. If we want to know whether God

loves us or not, we do not examine our feelings and emotions but look

at the way He has treated us in spite of our sinfulness. (3) “God is

love” means that there is nothing outside God that can move Him to

love us. Because God is by nature love, it is unnecessary, even impos-

sible, for us to make ourselves lovable in order to be accepted by Him.

And nothing, of course, reveals His love toward us more than the plan

of salvation. Indeed, the moment we fell into sin, Christ became our

Mediator, Redeemer, and Savior—the ultimate expression of God’s

love toward the fallen race.

“Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John

4:11, NIV). What are practical ways in which you can express

love toward others? What things in your own life hinder you

from showing that love?

TUESDAY

September 30

God as Creator

“Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us,

and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pas-

ture” (Ps. 100:3).

Scripture is unequivocal: God is the Creator. Without this funda-

mental truth, the Bible message becomes meaningless. On the other

hand, God as Creator means that He is to be distinguished from cre-

ation, that He is not part of the created order. God as the Creator

means that there was nothing before Him or before His acts of cre-

ation (Rom. 4:17, Heb. 11:3). God as Creator means that everything

belongs to Him and depends on His power and benevolence for sub-

sistence (Pss. 24:1, 2; 104:10–14). God as Creator means that creation

reveals the glory and power of its Creator (Ps. 19:1–3, Rom. 1:20).

What

did the Creator promise to a world damaged by sin? Isa. 65:17,

Rev. 21:1.

____________________________________________________________________

The Bible explicitly states that God created and sustains everything

through the power of His Son (John 1:1–3; Heb. 1:2, 3). The atone-

ment is God’s solution to the problem of sin within this creation.

Instead of leaving us to reap the ultimate rewards of sin and rebellion,

which would be eternal ruin, He instituted the plan of salvation.

How

does Paul describe those who are in Christ? 2 Cor. 5:17.

____________________________________________________________________

The power God displayed during the creation of the universe is the

same power He employs in re-creating fallen human beings into His

own image. He brought everything into existence through the power of

His word (Ps. 33:6), and now it is also through the power of His incar-

nate word in Christ that He re-creates us (John 1:1, 12, 13; 2 Cor. 4:16).

Is there something that you personally have created and sus-

tained, something that you put a lot of work and care into? In

what ways does your act of creating it give you ownership over

it? How do you feel about what you have made? How, in a small

way, might this comparison help us understand what we mean

to God, our Creator?

WEDNESDAY

October 1

Holy God

Read

Isaiah 40:25 and Isaiah 57:15. What do these texts tell us about

the nature of God?

____________________________________________________________________

The holiness of God is not simply an attribute of God but, like love,

reveals what He is in Himself. At least two fundamental ideas are

associated with His holiness.

First, it describes God as unique. The term holy usually designates

what has been placed at the exclusive and unique service of the Lord.

But when holy is applied to God, it emphasizes the fact that He is

unique and incomparable. There is no one in the universe like our sub-

lime and majestic God (see Isa. 46:5, 9), and only He is worthy of our

worship.

Second, God being holy does not mean that He is distant and inac-

cessible to us and unable to have fellowship with us. His holiness and

His love are inseparable. His holiness reveals itself in His willingness

to dwell with the contrite and lowly in spirit. By approaching them

and dwelling among them, the Holy One allows His creatures to par-

ticipate in His holiness.

What

promise is found in the following verse? 2 Cor. 5:21.

____________________________________________________________________

God’s holiness does not tolerate sin but actively reacts against it

(Isa. 5:24, Hos. 9:15, Rom. 1:18). “Your eyes are too pure to look on

evil; you cannot tolerate wrong” (Hab. 1:13, NIV). God’s natural

hatred for sin made necessary the role of a Mediator. God designed a

way by which sinners could be sanctified and enjoy fellowship with

Him again. This was possible through Christ, in whom atonement and

holiness were mysteriously united. The Holy One was born as a baby

on this planet of sin and impurity (Luke 1:35) to sanctify us through

the power of His atoning death: “We have been made holy through the

sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb. 10:10, NIV).

Someone says, “Why do I need a Savior? I’m not that bad, cer-

tainly not as bad as many others.” How should our understand-

ing of God’s holiness help us answer this person correctly?

THURSDAY

October 2

Omniscient God

What

do these texts tell us about God’s knowledge? Ps. 139:1–4, 15,

16; Isa. 46:10; Matt. 10:30.

____________________________________________________________________

God is omniscient; that is, “he knows everything” (1 John 3:20,

NIV). Nothing is hidden from Him. “Nothing in all creation is hidden

from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the

eyes” of the Lord (Heb. 4:13, NIV). All the spheres of His creation are

inundated by His presence, and therefore He knows every dimension

of it (Ps. 139:7–10). His knowledge of us is perfect and complete.

God alone possesses pure objectivity, because He alone knows every-

thing from every possible perspective.

It is not only that the Lord fully knows what is; He also perfectly

knows what will be in the future (Isa. 46:10; Matt. 26:34, 74, 75). The

future is no more hidden from Him than is either the past or the pres-

ent.

What

does 1 Peter 1:19, 20 tell us about God’s foreknowledge regard-

ing the rise of sin?

God’s omniscience is of great significance for the doctrine of atone-

ment. Because God knows everything, sin was not something that

caught Him by surprise. The God who perfectly knows all His crea-

tures knew in advance about the fall of one of His cherubim, and so

He formulated a plan to deal with the problem of sin, even before it

arose in humans: “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more”

(Rom. 5:20, NIV). Therefore, God’s decision to save us was hidden in

eternity and revealed in Christ. This is “the mystery hidden for long

ages past” (Rom. 16:25, NIV), “hidden in God, who created all things”

(Eph. 3:9, NIV). Before God created anything, He had foreseen the

origin of sin and decided to defeat it instead of fearfully running away

from it. From the divine perspective, Christ is “the Lamb that was

slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

God knows everything about you, things that no one else would

even dare suspect. And despite that knowledge, He still loves

you. How should that help influence how you treat others,

despite their faults?

FRIDAY

October 3

Further Study:

God and Redemption: “Only as we contemplate

the great plan of redemption can we have a just appreciation of the

character of God. The work of creation was a manifestation of His

love; but the gift of God to save the guilty and ruined race, alone

reveals the infinite depths of divine tenderness and compassion.”

—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 739.

Forgiveness and Justice: “When we study the divine character in

the light of the cross we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness

blended with equity and justice. We see in the midst of the throne One

bearing in hands and feet and side the marks of the suffering endured

to reconcile man to God. We see a Father, infinite, dwelling in light

unapproachable, yet receiving us to Himself through the merits of His

Son. The cloud of vengeance that threatened only misery and despair,

in the light reflected from the cross reveals the writing of God: Live,

sinner, live! ye penitent, believing souls, live! I have paid a ran-

som.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 333.

Discussion Questions:

● Go back over the main points of this week’s lesson. What other

aspects of God’s essential nature can you think of, and what role

would they play in the plan of salvation?

● What can we learn about God’s holiness that would help us

better understand what it means for us to be holy?

● Some people struggle with the question of God’s foreknowl-

edge and our free will. How free are we in our choices if God

knew beforehand what choices we would make? Discuss.

Summary:

The God who is life in Himself is the only One who can

restore life to us. We are loved by Him, not because we earned that

love but because He is love in Himself and continues to love us, in

spite of our sin. He also wants to re-create us, and He is able because

He is the Creator. As a holy God who cannot tolerate sin in His pres-

ence, He is able to sanctify us through Christ. His all-encompassing

knowledge reveals that sin was not an unexpected phenomenon but

something that He foresaw and was prepared to deal with.

tor

INSIDE

Angels Closed Their Eyes

by HOMER TRECARTIN

The pastor didn’t notice the young man enter the church and sit down.

In fact, no one noticed him. It was as though angels had blinded their eyes.

Parsa* grew up in Central Asia, a faithful worshiper of the Creator God.

His grandfather was a famous religious teacher. All his life Parsa had

prayed to God and read the holy writings of His people. While reading he

learned about the Sabbath and grew to love it, but no one else seemed to

understand its importance.

Oh, there was a small group of Adventists who worshiped in a house

church in town. But they were Christians, and everyone knew Christians

were heathens. Christians ate pork, drank alcohol, prayed to idols, dressed

indecently, and lived with one wife after another. Besides, Christians were

foreigners. No, he wanted nothing to do with Christians, even if they kept

the Sabbath.

But one Saturday as Parsa walked down the street, an unseen power

pulled him into the little Seventh-day Adventist Church. Trembling he slipped

in and sat down in the back row. He listened as the pastor preached a pow-

erful message on Abraham. Why would Christians talk about Abraham?

Parsa wondered. He thought Christians followed only the New Testament

and didn’t know that Abraham was a prophet of God. Parsa was so inter-

ested in what he heard that day that he returned the next Sabbath and the

next. The messages touched his heart, and he wanted to know more.

For six months he slipped into and out of church without being seen.

Then one week the Adventists saw him. It was as if scales had fallen from

their eyes. They welcomed him and invited him to join a Bible study class.

After several months of intense Bible study, Parsa was baptized. His

family and friends shunned him, but Parsa prays that they will find the

truth as he has. He continues doing all he can to share God’s love with oth-

ers, and a number of his people have recently accepted Jesus Christ as

their Lord and Savior.

Pray for Parsa’s people, many of whom are searching for greater truth.

And remember, your mission offering helps make work in Central Asia

possible. Thank you for having a part in spreading the gospel in difficult

areas.

*Not his real name.

HOMER TRECARTIN is director of planning for the General Conference Office of Adventist

Mission.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*October 4–10

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Gen. 3:4, 5; Job 1:8–11;

Isa. 14:13, 14; Ezek. 28:14–17; Rev. 12:7–9.

Memory Text:

“He [Christ] is before all things, and in him all

things hold together” (Colossians 1:17, NIV).

Key Thought

: To show the origins of Satan’s fall and how he

brought the battle to earth.

o matter how much Lucifer had, no matter how exalted he was,

it wasn’t enough. He wanted more. Thus began the “mystery

of iniquity” (2 Thess. 2:7), the origin of sin in God’s universe.

The origin of evil within this perfect being will remain a mystery,

because there was no reason for it. If it could be explained, it could be

justified. It began with the first small step that Lucifer took in cher-

ishing a particular emotion and desire. The conflicting emotions

within Lucifer, together with the misuse of his God-given freedom,

resulted in a cosmic conflict, a full-fledged rebellion against God in

which suffering and death have impacted innumerable creatures.

Today each one of us is living with the results of this conflict.

But don’t despair. As we will see in future lessons, Christ came to

bring a fair and just resolution to issues that caused this cosmic crisis.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 11.

Cosmic Crisis: The Disruption

of God’s Established

Order

SUNDAY

October 5

Sin: Its Origin

Read

Ezekiel 28:14–17. What does this tell us about the origin of sin?

What was Lucifer like before he fell?

____________________________________________________________________

Unlike God, who is eternal, evil and sin had a beginning; that is,

there was a time they didn’t exist. Because God is love and holy, and

everything He created was good, sin did not originate in Him. Ezekiel

makes it clear that sin mysteriously started in a creature who was cre-

ated good: “ ‘ “You were blameless in your ways from the day you

were created till wickedness was found in you” ’ ” (Ezek. 28:15, NIV).

“Blameless” (Heb. tamim, “complete”) designates the wholeness of

this creature as he came from the hands of the Creator.

Notice, too, that sin began in a cherub, an exalted being. The cheru-

bim were closer to God than any other angelic beings. Two were

placed as guardians by the entrance of Eden (Gen. 3:24). A pair, made

of gold, was placed on the ark of the covenant (Exod. 25:18–20). The

position of the cherubim on the ark illustrates the high position of this

cherub, who stood in the light of God’s presence in God’s dwelling

(Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 758). Sin originated, then, in

a celestial being who was very close to the throne of God. The phrase

“holy mountain of God” designates the heavenly temple, where God

dwells among His creatures, the celestial center of government.

The self-corruption of this cherub, Lucifer, was rooted in a selfish-

ness that misused the gifts of beauty and wisdom that God gave him.

He mysteriously allowed his emotions and feelings to prevail over his

reason, and consequently his wholeness was corrupted. “ ‘ “You cor-

rupted your wisdom” ’ ” (Ezek. 28:17, NIV, emphasis added); God

placed the blame squarely on Lucifer himself. Instead of holding to

the divine order, according to which his gifts were to be used to enrich

others, Lucifer perceived himself as superior to everyone else in

beauty, splendor, and wisdom. “Little by little Satan came to indulge

the desire for self-exaltation” and God’s established order was dis-

rupted.—Ellen G. White, The Faith I Live By, p. 66.

How often has it been that no matter what you had, you still

wanted more? Whose character are you manifesting? Why is

that so opposite to the character of Christ?

MONDAY

October 6

Attack on God

How

did Isaiah describe the true intentions of the rebellious cherub?

What was in his heart, his inner being? What was his real motive?

Isa. 14:13, 14.

As the strange, selfish feelings and emotions of the cherub gained

ascendancy over his higher powers and reason, he became bolder. He

perverted and misused the freedom that God had entrusted to him,

even to the point where He wanted to usurp God’s own authority.

In Ezekiel 28:15, a contrast is made between the condition of the

cherub as a good creature from the hand of his Creator and what he,

the creature, had become. He was at first “blameless” (NIV), whole,

lacking nothing, but something new was formed within him: The

verse says that “iniquity,” or “wickedness” (NIV), was found in him.

This term in the Old Testament can be used to mean duplicity, unholy

ambition, lying, and apostasy.

Ezekiel also said, “ ‘ “Your heart became proud [Heb. gabah, ‘to be

high,’ ‘to be exalted’]” ’ ” (Ezek. 28:17, NIV). To be proud can include

perceiving oneself as being more than one really is, or viewing oneself

as superior to others. It also can lead to behavior that ignores God’s will

(Ps. 10:4, Jer. 13:15) and that opposes God Himself (Ezek. 28:2). One

could easily conclude that the fallen cherub was being disloyal to God,

attacking Him, speaking lies, and acting deceptively.

How

did the serpent misrepresent God to Eve? Gen. 3:4, 5.

In order for Satan to persuade Eve to disobey God, he sought to

attack the character of God. He said, basically, that God was funda-

mentally a selfish being who limits the development of His intelligent

creatures, keeping them in a state of involuntary submission through a

threat of death. He was not what He claimed to be, a God of love, but

was camouflaging His true nature through the appearance of a loving

attitude. Satan was projecting onto God His own deceitful nature and

the real intentions of his corrupted heart. His attack in heaven against

God and God’s loving nature was now being transferred to this planet.

“Had Lucifer really desired to be like the Most High, he would never

have deserted his appointed place in heaven; for the spirit of the Most

High is manifested in unselfish ministry. Lucifer desired God’s power,

but not His character.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 435.

How can we avoid falling into this same spiritual trap as these

principles are played out around us more and more subtly?

TUESDAY

October 7

Sin and the Law of God

The law is an expression of the character and will of the Lawgiver.

The psalmist wrote, “ ‘I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is

within my heart’ ” (Ps. 40:8, NIV). Here the will of God has been

inter

nalized and has become part of the character of the psalmist. In

other words, the character of God is being appropriated through sub-

mission to the divine will expressed in the law.

How

do these texts help us understand the link between God’s love

and His law? Matt. 22:37–40; John 3:16; 14:15, 21; 1 John 5:3.

When John wrote, “The devil has been sinning from the beginning”

(1 John 3:8, NIV), he was saying that Satan, in heaven, rebelled

against the loving will of God.

In contrast to loving obedience, there is lawlessness (see 1 John

3:4). The word lawlessness (anomia) refers to a deep-seated attitude

in the heart of rebellious human beings. It speaks of chaos and anar-

chy as the substitutes for the divine law and for what it stands for, the

divine character. The cosmic conflict is against God and what He is in

Himself. Paul describes the end-time eschatological antichrist as “the

man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3, NIV) and refers to the phenomenon

of sin as the “mystery of anomia” (vs. 7).

Review

God’s command to Adam and Satan’s words to Eve (Gen.

2:17; 3:4, 5). What was going on here?

Genesis 2:17 was a clear expression of God’s love for Adam and

Eve and His intense desire to enjoy their fellowship forever. He clearly

did not want them to experience death; otherwise, why alert them to

the possibility of it? Created as free beings, Adam and Eve had to

demonstrate their willingness to enjoy eternity with the Creator. Their

obedience to the divine command would show that they were freely

choosing to enjoy eternal life with Him. It is that clearly expressed

divine will that Satan attacks and opposes, offering instead total

“independence” from God. This was his basic agenda in heaven: inde-

pendence from the divine command, being his own law without

accountability to anyone.

In what subtle ways is Satan still trying to get us to declare our

“independence” from God? How can we protect ourselves from

this deadly deception?

WEDNESDAY

October 8

Sin as Rebellion Against God’s

Government

How

does Paul describe the cosmic role of Christ? Col. 1:16, 17.

That which integrates creation into a harmonious unity are not the

laws of nature, important as they are, but the power of a loving God in

the person of Christ. Love is not only the bond that keeps Christians

united (Col. 3:14) but the bond that holds the universe together. It is

not an impersonal force but the very essence of God Himself. An

attack against God is an attack against the way He rules the universe

and, therefore, is an attempt to upset the divine order of creation.

Read

Job 1:8–11. Where do you see in these verses an attack on God

Himself by Satan?

____________________________________________________________________

The charges Satan raised against both Job and God reflect the

charges he raised against God in heaven. According to him, Job served

God out of selfish concerns, not out of love. He served God in order

to obtain things from Him, and God provided for Job in order to gain

his service. Satan argued that God’s government was characterized by

selfishness—not by selfless love, as God claimed. According to him,

the true nature of humans is revealed in the midst of chaos, and if

given the chance, they would rebel against God.

“All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So in the

heavenly courts, in His ministry for all created beings: through the

beloved Son, the Father’s life flows out to all; through the Son it

returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source

of all. And thus through Christ the circuit of beneficence is complete,

representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life.

“In heaven itself this law was broken. Sin originated in self-seeking.

Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven.”—Ellen G.

White, The Desire of Ages, p. 21.

How can you better fit in with this “circuit of beneficence”?

THURSDAY

October 9

War in Heaven

Two words used by Ezekiel could help us understand the strategy of

Lucifer’s attack against God.

The first word is trade (“your widespread trade” [Ezek. 28:16,

NIV]); he was involved in “widespread trade.” The word translated

“trade” also could be rendered “slander,” suggesting that in heaven

Lucifer was involved in raising false accusations against God and

probably other heavenly beings. Slander is evil speech intended to

damage the reputation of others, and it can describe the behavior of a

person who has chosen to ignore the will of God and who stands under

divine judgment (Lev. 19:16, Jer. 6:28–30). It results in division and

disorder (2 Cor. 12:20). Satan is described in the Bible as the accuser

or slanderer of God’s people, the adversary (Zech. 3:1, Rev. 12:10).

Satan did not hold “ ‘to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When

he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of

lies’ ” (John 8:44, NIV).

This slander led Satan to violence, the second important word

(Ezek. 28:16). Violence designates an antisocial behavior that violates

God’s established order. It is motivated by hate or egotism and could

lead to physical and social attacks. In some cases it results in murder

or in the exploitation of others for personal benefit (Gen. 49:5, Mic.

6:12). Satan was a “ ‘murderer from the beginning’ ” in that he intro-

duced violence and death into God’s creation (John 8:44).

What

was the final result of the anti-God behavior of Lucifer in

heaven? Rev. 12:7–9.

Slowly and mysteriously Satan’s selfish feelings were transformed

into a behavior that was an open attack against God and His Son.

What was at first hidden soon became visible, creating confusion and

disorder. There was war in heaven. This was the beginning of the cos-

mic conflict in which we all are involved. Satan and his supporters

were defeated in heaven and on the cross, and they will be extin-

guished from the universe at the appropriate time. The resolution of

the sin problem not only restores the fallen human race to perfect and

permanent union with God but will reestablish a perfect moral har-

mony throughout all of God’s creation.

First come bad thoughts, which lead to bad words, which lead

to bad actions. This happened to Satan, and unless we’re care-

ful, it will happen to us. What’s our best defense (see Phil. 4:8)?

FRIDAY

October 10

Further Study:

“There was one who perverted the freedom that

God had granted to His creatures. Sin originated with him who, next

to Christ, had been most honored of God and was highest in power

and glory among the inhabitants of heaven. Lucifer, ‘son of the morn-

ing,’ was first of the covering cherubs, holy and undefiled. He stood

in the presence of the great Creator, and the ceaseless beams of glory

enshrouding the eternal God rested upon him.”—Ellen G. White,

Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 35.

Made a Final Choice: “Lucifer in heaven had sinned in the light of

God’s glory. To him as to no other created being was given a revela-

tion of God’s love. Understanding the character of God, knowing His

goodness, Satan chose to follow his own selfish, independent will.

This choice was final. There was no more that God could do to save

him.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 761, 762.

Discussion Questions:

● Think about the fact that Lucifer was a “perfect” being, and yet,

iniquity was found in him. What does that tell us about the kind

of freedom God has given to His intelligent creatures? What kind

of moral responsibility does this freedom place on each of us?

● Keeping the idea of our freedom in mind, discuss the role of

the law. Why would law be so important for free beings? If we

were not free, why would there be no need for law? That is, what’s

the purpose of a law for beings who don’t have moral choices to

begin with?

● Go back to the question at the end of Tuesday’s lesson. What

are the various ways Satan seeks to manifest his character in us,

both individually and as a church? What are the things we do

that show, at times, just how successful he has been?

Summary:

Lucifer, a free being, abused the freedom that God gave

him, and he cherished evil thoughts until those thoughts turned into

action, action against God’s government and against God Himself.

The result was a disruption of heaven’s established order. Truly, the

issues of sin and rebellion have consequences beyond our mere earth.

tor

INSIDE

“God Was My Umbrella”

ALEX ERIGA

I was called to the headmaster’s office in the high school I attended in

northern Uganda. My school fees were due, and I had no money. I walked

the 29 miles home and told my parents the problem. They asked relatives

to help pay my fees then sent me back to school.

As I walked toward school, I saw storm clouds gathering. Rain would fol-

low, and there was no place to take refuge. I hurried on, watching the dark

clouds approach. Their feathery bottoms told me it was raining hard. With

no shelter, I kept walking. I worried that my schoolbooks would get wet.

As the storm drew closer, I remembered God’s promise that He will not

leave His servant to suffer. I knelt beside the road and prayed. I could hear

the wind blowing and could smell the rain. “Thank You for the school fees,

God,” I prayed. “Please protect me from the rain so my books won’t get

wet.” I got up and hurried on. The rain clouds were closing in.

Two people walking toward me were soaking wet. Then I noticed that

the ground was wet. The rain was in front of me as well as behind me. It

was getting late, and I still had a long way to go. I kept walking. Two miles

farther I felt a few drops of rain. The clouds above me were dark and

heavy.

At last I approached the school and the nearby trading center. The mud

puddles along the road told me that it had rained quite hard there. Some

of my classmates returning from the trading center saw that my clothes

were dry and asked, “Where did you wait out the storm?”

“Nowhere,” I said. “God was my umbrella.” I told them how I had

prayed and God had protected me on my long walk to school.

When I arrived at school, other boys asked how I had stayed dry in the

storm. Again I shared how God had protected me. As I told my story, I

realized that God cares about the little things

in my life; surely He also cares for the big

things. As I told how God had kept me dry, I

was able to witness to others who didn’t know

how much God loves them.

I thank God for giving us miracles to share

and faith to live by as we tell the world about

God’s love. And thank you for supporting the

mission offering each week, for it helps carry

the gospel to the world.

ALEX ERIGA (left) lives in a Sudanese refugee camp in

Adjumani, Uganda

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*October 11–17

The Fall Into Sin

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Gen. 1–3, Rom. 3:9–18,

5:10–21, 6:16, 2 Pet. 2:19.

Memory Text:

“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free

from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24, NASB).

Key Thought:

To look at the Fall and the horrible results it brought

to humanity.

hen used to designate the loss of human freedom caused by

Adam’s and Eve’s sin, the word fall implies that sin lowered

us from one level to another—in this case from a high moral

and spiritual condition to one of corruption, oppression, and enslave-

ment.

Though much is not revealed about the Fall in Eden, we have

enough biblical information to understand that something happened

that damaged not only human nature but even the planet itself. The

result of that Fall is not encouraging. In fact, it would be all but hope-

less were it not for the promise of the atonement in our behalf through

Christ. Yet, we still need to see what has happened to us, because only

when we see ourselves as we really are will the glory of the Cross

reach us in its saving beauty and power.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 18.

SUNDAY

October 12

Rebellion in the Garden

What

biblical evidence can you find in Genesis 1–3 to support the

view that Adam and Eve rebelled against God? (See, for instance,

Gen. 2:16, 17; 3:2, 3, 6.)

____________________________________________________________________

The word rebellion is not used in Genesis 1–3 to describe the sin of

Adam and Eve, but the idea is nevertheless present. Not only did they

openly violate a divine command, but in the process of disobedience,

they shifted loyalties. Eve listened to the reasoning of the enemy and

thought it more reliable than the explicit word of God. She concluded

that the divine command was too restrictive and that in order to

achieve her highest potential she had to claim independence from her

Creator. This was rebellion. Adam listened to the voice of his wife

instead of the voice of God and joined her in the rebellion.

What

are some of the immediate results of sin, especially when under-

stood as rebellion against God? Isa. 59:2; compare to Gen. 3:23, 24.

____________________________________________________________________

Adam’s and Eve’s rebellion brought an end to the kind of intimate

relationship that they had first enjoyed with God. The nature of their

rebellion was such that it disrupted how they related not only to God

but to each other. Instead of mutual love and commitment, their rebel-

lion against God resulted in mutual shame (Gen. 3:7). Their inter-

personal relationship was no longer harmonious (vs. 12). This rebellion

resulted, above all, in their separation from God and the perception

that God was someone to fear, someone from whom they needed to

hide (vss. 8–10). God and humans were no longer united in love and

harmony. What was needed was an act of reconciliation.

What has been your own experience with sin and how it impacts

your relationship with God and with others? In what ways can

you see the same principles in your own experience as seen here

in Genesis?

MONDAY

October 13

Slaves of Sin

According

to 2 Peter 2:19 and Romans 6:16, what does sin do to

sinners?

In order to illustrate the devastating power of sin, Paul sometimes

personifies it as a tyrant. It “entered the world through one man”

(Rom. 5:12, NIV), reigns over humans in death (Rom. 5:21, 6:12),

deceives (Rom. 7:11), dwells in humans (vs. 17), enslaves (Rom.

6:20), and produces death (Rom. 7:13). The sin of Adam and Eve was

unique in that it resulted in the subjection of everything to its cor-

rupting power. Satan became the prince of this world (John 12:31,

14:30). In their search for autonomy, Adam and Eve exchanged the

Lordship of God for the enslaving and corrupting lordship of Satan.

Sin became a universal power from which human beings have not

been able to escape by themselves (Rom. 5:12).

According

to Romans 3:9–18, what has been the situation of the

human race under the reign of sin?

____________________________________________________________________

Paul also teaches that the fall of Adam and Eve brought the natural

world under the power of sin: “For the creation was subjected to frus-

tration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected

it” (Rom. 8:20, NIV). The damaging and corrupting power of sin

reached God’s creation on this planet. The verb subjected indicates

that nature is under the authority of some power that has robbed it of

its true beauty and meaningfulness. This was the result not of its own

doing but of something else: the entrance of sin (Rom. 5:12). Nature

is now “subjected to frustration.” The word frustration designates here

purposelessness and emptiness. Futility is used in Ephesians 4:17 to

describe not nature but individuals who outside of Christ live “in the

futility of their thinking” (NIV).

The point is that nature, as well as human beings, exists in a corrupted

condition because of sin. What was needed was a manifestation of power

from outside the sphere of human existence and outside of nature itself

that could redeem the fallen world. This would happen through Christ.

Try to imagine what this world would be like were it not fallen.

w different would it be? How different would our lives be?

What should the difference tell you about just how devastating

the power of sin really is?

TUESDAY

October 14

Spiritual Death

Sin damaged the inner life of human beings. The moral and spiri-

tual values that ruled over God’s universe no longer rule over the natu-

ral human heart. Humans know that there is something wrong with

them, and they wish for something better. At times they try to do what

is good and right only to discover that “the mind of sinful man is

death. . . . The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to

God’s law, nor can it do so” (Rom. 8:6, 7, NIV).

Human nature is morally and spiritually weak. Humans cannot

resist the power of sin and, consequently, wherever there is a human

being, there is sin and wickedness. The phenomenon is so universal

that “ ‘there is no one righteous, not even one’ ” (Rom. 3:10, NIV). Sin

is a condition of the human nature in its alienation from God. Because

of the Fall, the human “heart is deceitful above all things and beyond

cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9, NIV). The “heart,” consid-

ered in the Bible to be the volitional and intellectual center of a human

being, is now defined as essentially deceitful, insidious, and in itself

unreliable.

Humans are almost incapable of fully comprehending the intrica-

cies of their inner being and are unable by themselves to live a digni-

fied life (Eccles. 9:3). They live in conflict with the depth of their

beings in fear and loneliness, struggling in themselves to do what is

right but often finding that they can’t (Gal. 5:17). They are unable to

fully comprehend themselves and the world in which they exist; thus,

they live in darkness with respect to God (Rom. 1:21–25). This inner

corruption and stupefaction expresses itself in sinful acts against one-

self, against others, and against God (Matt. 15:19).

The corrupting power of sin knows no boundaries. Only God can set

limits to its corrupting influence and ultimately eradicate it from the

universe. If, after the Fall, there was something good left on the planet,

it was because God did not allow Satan to take full control. He said to

the woman, representing the human race, and to the serpent, the

expression of evil powers, “ ‘I will put enmity between you and the

woman’ ” (Gen. 3:15, NIV). They were not to coexist peacefully, one

totally controlling the other. An element of freedom was preserved for

humans that would allow them, if they so wished, to hate evil and

choose life. God’s decision to intervene in the human predicament

made it possible for Him to limit the corrupting power of sin.

Humans need a way out of the terrible situation brought about by

sin.

Look up the verses listed in today’s lesson. How should these

texts help you better understand your need of a Savior?

WEDNESDAY

October 15

Physical and Eternal Death

God’s words to Adam—“ ‘When you eat of it you will surely die’ ”

(Gen. 2:17, NIV)—indicate that death is the result of rebellion against

God. Death and sin cannot be separated. This death is not only spiri-

tual; it also designates the physical and eternal death of sinners.

Because of its connection with sin, death is not a simple biological

phenomenon but a fearful awareness of our eternal separation from

the Source of life—a separation that leads to eternal extinction. In all

of its expressions, death is like sin, universal and inevitable (Rom.

5:12, Heb. 9:27). With the entrance of sin into the world, the human

race was an endangered species about to disappear from the universe.

God’s creation on planet Earth, human and nonhuman, was on its way

to annihilation.

Read

Romans 5:10–21. How did death enter? What caused it?

What’s our only way out?

____________________________________________________________________

Death and suffering came together into the world as a result of sin.

No one born and raised on this planet escapes pain and suffering. We

may not be able to express in words what suffering is, but we have a

deep experiential knowledge of it. In the Bible there appears to be a

connection between our condition as mortal sinners and pain and suf-

fering. Death is so powerful that even before we die it makes its pres-

ence felt among us through the physical, emotional, and psychologi-

cal pain produced by sickness, uncertainty, and fear. As a result, the

quality of life is weakened, and depression sets in.

The phenomenon of sickness, another result of sin, is described as

coming “near the grave,” as being “counted among those who go

down to the pit” (Ps. 88:3, 4, NIV). The incursion of death in daily

human existence is part of the human predicament directly associated

with the phenomenon of sin. Humans needed Someone who could

give them life by dying in their place, freeing them not only from sin

but from pain, suffering, and death.

What have you learned from your own experience with death,

either facing your own or seeing others die? What is it about

death that should show us our own utter helplessness? How can

we use the reality of death to draw ourselves closer to the Lord?

THURSDAY

October 16

God’s Reaction to Human Sin

Read

Genesis 3:8–13. How did the Lord approach Adam and Eve

after they sinned? What was the purpose of the questions He

asked them?

____________________________________________________________________

The Lord approached them in order to evaluate—with them—the

crime they had committed and to pass judgment on it. Through a

process of judgment, in which questions were asked and answers

given, God was leading them to recognize that they were indeed guilty

and that their rebellion was unjustified. The result was separation

from the Lord, represented by their expulsion from the Garden of

Eden.

What

is God’s reaction to sin? Eph. 5:6. How are we to understand the

idea of God’s wrath?

____________________________________________________________________

We should keep several things in mind when we talk about God’s

wrath. First, human anger is not a model for understanding His wrath.

Our anger is often irrational and damaging. God’s wrath is untouched

by sin and is primarily intended for healing (Heb. 12:6, Rev.

20:15–21:1). Second, God’s wrath against human sin testifies that He

takes us seriously, that He does not ignore us—even in our rebellion.

Ignoring people can reveal disrespect, even unconcern. He reacts to

our sin, and in so doing God tells us that we are important to Him.

Third, God’s wrath is not a permanent attribute of God but His reac-

tion to the irrational presence of sin and evil. There is always a reason

for it; sin provokes it (Deut. 4:24, 25). Therefore His wrath is momen-

tary, while His love endures forever (Isa. 54:8).

Because of sin, what was needed was Someone who could deliver us

from “the coming wrath” (1 Thess. 1:10, NIV).

If you love someone and see him or her hurt, would you not feel

anger about what is happening? How can this parallel help us

understand the meaning of God’s wrath?

FRIDAY

October 17

Further Study:

Sin and Separation From God: “Christ knew that

Adam in Eden, with his superior advantages, might have withstood the

temptations of Satan, and conquered him. He also knew that it was not

possible for man, out of Eden, separated from the light and love of God

since the Fall, to resist the temptations of Satan in his own strength.”

—Ellen G. White, Maranatha, p. 224.

Sin and Lack of Harmony: “In transgression Adam became a law

to himself. By disobedience he was brought under bondage. Thus a dis-

cordant element, born of selfishness, entered man’s life. Man’s will and

God’s will no longer harmonized. Adam had united with the disloyal

forces, and self-will took the field.”—Ellen G. White, Signs of the

Times, June 13, 1900.

Sin and Rebellion in Nature: “Among the lower creatures Adam

had stood as king . . . ; but when he transgressed, this dominion was

forfeited. The spirit of rebellion, to which he himself had given

entrance, extended throughout the animal creation. Thus not only the

life of man, but the nature of the beasts, the trees of the forest, the grass

of the field, the very air he breathed, all told the sad lesson of the

knowledge of evil.”—Ellen G. White, God’s Amazing Grace, p. 41.

Discussion Questions:

● It’s obvious to almost anyone that things are not right in our

world. As Christians, we believe things are this way because of

sin and the Fall. Some folk, however, don’t believe in the idea of

sin or the Fall. How do they explain the state of the world? What

are some other explanations that people give? How, for example,

would an evolutionist explain our present condition? What are

these other views, and how would you answer them?

● No doubt, all around you the terrible impact of sin can be seen.

Though we can never eradicate sin or its consequences in this world

now, what practical steps can we take to try to help alleviate as much

of the damage as possible? What are things you can do, both as an

individual and as a church, to try to relieve some of the suffering?

● What is a “spiritual death”? How can someone know if they

are spiritually dead? Would someone spiritually dead even know

it? What can you do to help someone who feels that he or she is,

indeed, spiritually dead?

Summary:

The Fall was an act of rebellion against God, and it

resulted in the spiritual, physical, and eternal death of sinners.

Because the results were so bad, something drastic had to be done;

otherwise, we would have no hope. As we shall see, the Cross was that

drastic answer to the problem caused by the Fall.

tor

INSIDE

“I’m Free Behind Bars”

HEIDEMARIE KLINGEBERG

Wolfgang was a successful businessman—a banker in fact. But before

long, money and success meant more to him than family and friends. Soon

it seemed that he never had enough.

He had a dream in which he saw two paths—one filled with riches but

ending in a dark valley, and the other a path of service leading eventually

to a bright place—he chose the route of riches and eventual darkness. He

would remain on the path of self-gratification, no matter where it led.

Six months later Wolfgang was arrested and convicted of embezzle-

ment. He was sent to prison. While behind bars he felt sorry—sorry for

himself and sorry that he had been caught. He was transferred to another

prison, and there he met a pastor he had known years earlier. The two spent

many hours talking together about life and religious matters. He began

taking part in the prison’s religious services, including discussion groups

and Bible studies. Little by little he grew closer to God.

One day while reading the newspaper, he saw an advertisement for a

Bible study course and sent away for it. When lessons arrived, he began

studying them in earnest. Through the Bible course, Wolfgang met

Friedhelm, a Bible instructor. Wolfgang asked many questions about what

the Bible says on certain topics, and Friedhelm answered each question.

Wolfgang’s journey to God was speeding up.

He was transferred to another prison where he began suffering bouts of

depression. One evening while he battled despair, he prayed, “Lord Jesus,

please take over in my life. I surrender to You.” Almost immediately he

was confronted with the enormity of his sins, the trouble he had brought

upon himself, his family, and his victims. He cried bitterly and long. Then

he opened his Bible and found Jeremiah 30, in which he read, “ ‘ “I am

with you and will save you,” declares the LORD. . . . “I will not completely

destroy you. I will discipline you but only with justice” ’” (verse 11, NIV).

He felt a deep peace he had never known before, and he knew that God

had granted his prayer and had replaced his despair with trust and hope in

Jesus. He began spending hours with God, reading the Bible, praying, and

worshiping. His desires and his goals in life have completely changed. “I

am so happy and thankful, for even in prison I am free in Christ.”

Wolfgang was baptized and has made new friends in Christ. He has

turned from his old life and faces a new life in Jesus. He is thankful that

he found Christ through the Voice of Hope Bible correspondence school,

which is sponsored in part by mission offerings. Thank you for helping

one more prisoner of sin find freedom in Christ.

HEIDEMARIE KLINGEBERG works with Stimme der Hoffnung, the Voice of Hope Adventist

Media Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*October 18–24

Atonement and the Divine

Initiative

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Rom. 3:19–22; 5:6–8, 20,

21; Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:26, 27; 2 Tim. 1:8, 9; Titus 1:2.

Memory Text:

“And he made known to us the mystery of his

will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,

to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfill-

ment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under

one head, even Christ” (Ephesians 1:9, 10, NIV).

Key Thought:

To show that the Godhead anticipated the Fall,

and that a plan was crafted to solve the problem of sin long before

it arose.

uman beings were given moral freedom, something not found

in any of the other creatures that God had created here on

earth. Once God endowed them with this freedom, it was

theirs, and He could not take it away from them without radically

altering their very nature and being. They could use this freedom

either to respond positively by rendering to Him, in love and gratitude,

faithful obedience, or they could use that freedom and reject the gift

of life and disobey the Lord. (After all, if humans didn’t have the

option to disobey, they really wouldn’t be free.)

God—foreseeing that horrible possibility of disobedience—acted

accordingly. Thus, the plan of salvation was conceived in the divine

mind long before humans were created and before evil and sin actu-

ally appeared, a plan that centered on the person and work of Jesus

Christ.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 25.

SUNDAY

October 19

The Mystery of God’s Love

Read

Romans 5:6–8. According to these texts, what prompted God to

bring salvation to us through Jesus?

____________________________________________________________________

God was not obliged to save the human race. It was not something

that He was forced to do. It is difficult to imagine the Godhead say-

ing, “Had We done this or that, Adam and Eve would not have fallen

into sin. Therefore, now We should do something to save them from

their predicament.” Instead, humans brought upon themselves the con-

dition in which they found themselves after the Fall: “ ‘God made

mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes’ ”

(Eccles. 7:29, NIV).

If God felt obliged to save us, salvation would be something that we

deserve. But the opposite is true; it is something that we don’t deserve,

and yet, God was willing to give it to us anyway. This makes His work

of salvation in our behalf even more remarkable, because He did for

us, not what He was forced to do but what He, out of love, chose to

do. He, the Creator, was under no obligation to us, the creatures.

Read

Romans 3:19–22. What is Paul saying to us here about how we

are saved? What role does the law have in solving the problem

caused by sin?

Because of sin, it is impossible for humans, through obedience to

the law, to reconstruct their original relationship with God (see Rom.

8:3, Gal. 3:21). The law could no more save us than feeding a corpse

could bring it back to life. If something was to happen, God Himself

would have to take the initiative. And He did—through the revelation

of His righteousness, revealed through Jesus on the cross. This righ-

teousness comes to the believer by faith and not by works of the law.

If salvation was something that we could earn through obedience, God

would owe it to us to save us. Instead, God determined that humans

will be forgiven and restored to permanent and eternal fellowship with

Him only through the work and person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

What means more to you (and why): someone doing something

nice to you because he or she was obliged to, or purely out of

love?

MONDAY

October 20

The Mystery of God’s Grace

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness

of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Eph. 1:7,

NIV).

It would not be difficult to imagine that with the entrance of sin into

the world, the intelligent creatures of the universe were wondering how

God was going to relate to this rebellious race. They were to be sur-

prised. They were to witness something they probably had never seen

before, an aspect of the love and power of God that would now be

expressed in the context of humanity’s fall. God was going to defeat sin

on this planet through the power of grace. Within that context, God

showed Himself to be, by nature, kind and mercifully disposed toward

these sinful and rebellious creatures. Jesus testified concerning the

Father, “ ‘He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men’ ” (Luke 6:35,

NASB).

What

is the significance of the contrast Paul makes between the phe-

nomenon of sin and the revelation of God’s grace? Rom. 5:20, 21.

____________________________________________________________________

In the Bible, grace is an aspect of God’s love, and it is extended in

a particular way to sinners. It seems to designate a dynamic, consis-

tent, and permanent aspect of God’s nature, one that constantly seeks

to restore sinful creatures to harmony with Him. The biblical concept

of grace reaffirms the fact that the atoning work of Christ reaches us

as a gift, a work of salvation that we did not deserve. God’s grace

implies that our sin is inexcusable, unjustifiable, and deserving eter-

nal death; yet, instead of that death we were given the hope and prom-

ise of life, even eternal life. Finally, this wonderful aspect of God’s

nature was revealed to the universe in an unparalleled way in the per-

son and work of Christ. It is only and exclusively in Him that we find

and enjoy the benefits of “the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7, NASB).

Read 2 Corinthians 8:9. What is Paul talking about here? More

impor

tant, how have you experienced for yourself the kind of

grace revealed in this text? How has your life changed as a result

of what Christ has done for you?

TUESDAY

October 21

An Eternal Plan

After the Fall, God was not obliged to save us. But He did so any-

way. Moreover, this decision—which was extremely expensive for

Him—was not an afterthought.

Read

Ephesians 1:4; Colossians 1:26, 27; 2 Timothy 1:8, 9; and Titus

1:2. What do these texts tell us about when the plan to save us was

instituted?

____________________________________________________________________

The New Testament reveals several things about the mystery of

God.

First, it was formulated before the “foundation of the world” (Eph.

1:4, NASB). This implies that long before humans fell into sin, the

Godhead had created a plan to deal with that calamity.

Second, this divine mystery was “kept hidden for ages and genera-

tions” (Col. 1:26, NIV). Not only was the plan configured in advance,

but it was also determined that it would be put into effect at a particu-

lar moment. Therefore, it remained hidden within the Godhead for

ages.

Third, the mystery is specifically identified with Christ (Col. 1:27).

This refers to the mystery of the person of Christ, His ministry, death,

resurrection, and mediation on behalf of a sinful human race. It is fun-

damentally the good news of salvation through Christ, the Christian

gospel (Eph. 6:19).

Fourth, this mystery is more precisely defined as God’s purpose in

Christ “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one

head, even Christ” (Eph. 1:10, NIV). The plan was to restore, in and

through the person of Christ, the cosmic harmony that was ruined

through sin. The effectiveness of this process is already visible in the

unity of Gentiles and Jews in the church (Eph. 3:6). Fifth, the mystery

secretly formulated within the Godhead before the creation of the

world has now become known through the coming of Christ into

human history.

Even before the foundation of the world, God’s plan was to save

the world, each one of us included. What hope can you draw, for

yourself, from the amazing truth that God’s plan was to save

you even before you existed?

WEDNESDAY

October 22

The Way of the Cross

God could have dealt with human rebellion in several different

ways. He could have immediately destroyed Adam and Eve, even the

whole planet. Or He also could have decided to abandon them to their

fate; that is, He could have just left them to face the inevitable results

of sin, which would be eternal ruin.

But there was one thing He could not have done; He could not have

ignored their rebellion, pretending as if nothing had happened and

allowing their relationship to continue as before.

In the end, what did God do? He didn’t destroy them, He didn’t

abandon them, and He didn’t ignore them. Instead, He put into effect

His eternal purpose of salvation through Christ.

Read

Mark 10:45, Galatians 1:4, 2:20, Ephesians 5:2, and Titus 2:14.

What key theme is repeated in these texts? What do they tell us

about the plan of salvation?

____________________________________________________________________

Once God committed Himself to save us, He didn’t have several

options on how to do it. In fact, there was just one. Sin could be solved

only through the incarnation, ministry, death, resurrection, and media-

tion of Christ. If we were to be spared eternal ruin, Jesus had to “give”

Himself for us. The incarnation and the death of Christ were unavoid-

able if we were to be saved. In other words, there is only one road to

heaven, and it passes through the heart of Christ on the cross.

When Jesus was in Gethsemane, experiencing the anguish of death

(Matt. 26:36–46) and bearing the sins of the world, He approached the

Father, asking Him, essentially, whether or not there was another

option available to accomplish the salvation of humankind. The

answer came wrapped in divine silence. There was no other way out

for the human problem except through the sacrifice of Christ.

In the mystery of divine council, before the creation of the world,

the Son of God offered Himself to die as our Substitute and Surety.

He, as we saw in the above verses, “gave” Himself for us. There was

no other way.

Again, He was not under compulsion to save us; He did it willingly,

out of love. But once He decided to accomplish that salvation, His

death was inescapable, even though a voluntary act. “ ‘I lay down my

life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it

down of my own accord’ ” (John 10:17, 18, NIV).

THURSDAY

October 23

God’s Plan Revealed in Jesus

According

to these texts, what did Jesus “need” to do in order to

accomplish His mission of salvation? Luke 4:43; 9:22; 17:25; 19:5;

22:37; 24:7, 26, 44.

____________________________________________________________________

In most of those passages we find a verb that could be translated “it

is necessary” (Greek, dei). The verb expresses a very important aspect

in the life of Jesus. The whole life of Jesus was oriented by what He

needed to do in order to accomplish His mission: “ ‘We must [it is

necessary for us to] do the work of him who sent me’ ” (John 9:4,

NIV). At the beginning of His public ministry Jesus said to the disci-

ples, “ ‘I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for

I was sent for this purpose’ ” (Luke 4:43, NASB). The ministry of

Jesus clearly was determined by willingness to accomplish God’s plan

for the salvation of the human race. Every aspect of His life was part

of this plan. For instance, He saw Zacchaeus and said to him, “ ‘I must

[it is necessary for Me to] stay at your house today’ ” (Luke 19:5, NIV).

But the real goal of the ministry of Jesus reached beyond the com-

pulsion to preach the good news of the kingdom of God. There was a

dark path that He “needed to” tread. He needed to go to Jerusalem. He

could have chosen not to go, but He knew that this was indispensable

for the divine plan. So, He said to His disciples “that he must [it was

necessary for Him to] go to Jerusalem and suffer many things . . . , and

that he must [it was necessary for Him to] be killed” (Matt. 16:21,

NIV). He was going there because it was necessary for Him to be

rejected by the evil generation (Luke 17:25), to be counted with the

transgressors (Luke 22:37), and to be lifted up on the cross (John

3:14, 12:34). But dying was not enough to fulfill His mission. It was

necessary for Him to be resurrected (Acts 17:3), to be received in

glory, and to remain there until all the prophecies were fulfilled (Acts

3:21). He was following the eternal plan put together by the Godhead.

What are the things in your life that you must do, that are neces-

sary, and what are the things that aren’t? How do you make that

distinction between them, and why is it so important to be able

to?

FRIDAY

October 24

Further Study:

Defining Grace: “We would never have learned the

meaning of this word ‘grace’ had we not fallen. God loves the sinless

angels who do His service and are obedient to all His commands, but

He does not give them grace. These heavenly beings know naught of

grace; they have never needed it, for they have never sinned. Grace is an

attribute of God shown to undeserving human beings. We did not seek

after it, but it was sent in search of us. God rejoices to bestow this grace

on everyone who hungers for it, not because we are worthy, but because

we are so utterly unworthy.”—Ellen G. White, My Life Today, p. 100.

Redemption: Not an Afterthought: “The purpose and plan of

grace existed from all eternity. Before the foundation of the world it

was according to the determinate counsel of God that man should be

created, endowed with power to do the divine will. But the defection

of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the

Omnipotent, and yet it did not deter Him from carrying out His eter-

nal purpose; for the Lord would establish His throne in righteousness.

God knows the end from the beginning. . . . Therefore redemption was

not an afterthought.”—Ellen G. White, God’s Amazing Grace, p. 129.

“Not only was He to die, but he knew precisely the shame, the

humiliation, He would have to suffer, the cruel treatment He should

receive. There was no compulsion in bringing Him to the ignominious

death on the cross; yet He made His soul an offering for sin. The mind

of God to save the world was the mind of Christ. His own love was

one with that of the Father, and that love constrained Him.”—Ellen G.

White, The Bible Echo, November 25, 1895.

Discussion Questions:

● In the second Ellen White quote above, she makes it clear that

God knew beforehand about our fall, and hence all the pain and

suffering that would come with it.And yet, He created us anyway?

Why would He do that, knowing what would happen? How does

the third quote above help answer that question? How does the

suffering of Jesus Himself help us better understand why God

allows our own suffering?

● Write out a page summarizing whatever point impressed you

the most from this week’s lesson. Bring it to class and share it

with others.

Summary:

God not only took the initiative to save us but did it volun-

tarily out of His loving nature. That decision, which revealed the

nature of His gracious character, was made in eternity, before we were

created, and it required the sacrificial death of God’s Son. The plan

was fully revealed and implemented in the life, ministry, death, and

resurrection of Jesus.

tor

INSIDE

The School Taught Me

by IVETTE RIVERA

My children attended a private school that only went through the tenth

grade. I began looking for a good school where they could finish their

education. A friend told me about the Adventist school in town, but she

warned me that the school was not big or fancy. I visited the school and

saw that my friend was right; it wasn’t big or fancy. However, I was

impressed with the teachers, and the students seemed happy. After talking

with the director, I enrolled my son in the school and let my daughter fin-

ish her last year at the other school.

My son loved his new school and his teachers. He often talked about

what he was learning, but I refused to let him talk about religion. I knew

almost nothing about Adventists and thought that they worship someone

called Ellen White on Saturdays.

One day while I was waiting at a stoplight, a man gave me a magazine.

I took it, and laid it aside. When I found the magazine again and started

reading it, I didn’t trust what was printed there. So I looked up Sabado

(Saturday) in the dictionary. It said that Sabado is the seventh day, and

Domingo (Sunday) is the first day. I realized that these Adventists were not

as crazy as I had thought. I read the articles and verified every fact in the

magazine. I even looked up the change of Sabbath to Sunday. I was

amazed that nothing in the magazine could be disputed. Even though I

didn’t want to admit it, this church was right.

I started keeping the Sabbath as I understood it. But I wondered how

this Mrs. White fit into Adventist worship. I asked a teacher at the school,

and she loaned me several books by Ellen White. There I found great truth.

Because I didn’t allow my son to talk to me about what he was learning

about religion, I didn’t realize that he already knew much of what I was

discovering. When I told my children that I wanted to start attending the

Adventist church, my son was excited, for he had wanted to go. I allowed

my daughter to attend our former church until she was convinced, as I was,

that the Adventists were right. She listened as I explained what I was

learning, and soon she decided to join my son and me in the Adventist

church. Eventually we all were baptized together.

I believe in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its school system, for

through it God introduced us to His church. I believe in our publishing

work, for it was a magazine that led me to the feet of Jesus. Our mission

offerings support Adventist schools around the world and lead people such

as us to God. Thank you for being a part in this great endeavor.

IVETTE RIVERA lives in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*October 25–31

Atonement

Announced

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Gen. 3:15, 22:1–18, Exodus

32, 34:6–10, Daniel 9.

Memory Text:

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he

was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us

peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah

53:5, NIV).

Key Thought:

To show the different ways that God, centuries

before the Cross, had announced His plan of salvation.

nce the Lord had provided a solution to the deadly reality and

power of sin, He immediately announced the good news to

fallen human beings. (The first missionary in cosmic history

was not a creature but the Creator Himself!) The Lord also made sure

that this promise, that of redemption, was kept fresh and alive in their

minds because He wanted His people to be ready when, through the

person of Jesus, the promise would become a reality. Throughout the

history of His people in the Old Testament, God created institutions

and laws directly tied to His plan of salvation that illustrated its work-

ings. By means of the sacrificial system, the priesthood, and even the

king (himself a symbol of the Messiah), they could anticipate the

supreme sacrifice, the coming of the true High Priest, and the reign of

the Messianic King through whom God’s saving purpose would be

realized.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 1.

SUNDAY

October 26

A Promise to Adam and Eve

Review

Genesis 3:1–15, focusing especially on verse 15. What is

being said in verse 15, and what hope can be found there for us?

____________________________________________________________________

Christians have correctly found in Genesis 3:15 a prophecy of the

Messiah.

First, the context of Genesis 3:15 indicates that the serpent is an

instrument of evil and rebellion against God (Rev. 12:9). In the

Garden of Eden this evil power defeated Adam and Eve and extended

its dominion over the descendants of the woman.

Second, Genesis 3:15 announces the destruction of the serpent by

the Seed of the woman. It will “strike” the heel of the Seed, but the

Seed will “crush” the head of the serpent. The Hebrew verb sûp

(“bruise,” “strike at,” “crush”) is the same in both places, which sug-

gests that the seriousness of the assault depends on the part of the

body assaulted. The attack against the Seed (at its heel) is not fatal; the

Seed, though, will crush the serpent’s head, indicating its ultimate

demise.

Third, the Hebrew noun zera

(“offspring”) usually designates “off-

spring, posterity, seed” in the sense of descendants as a single group.

But it can also refer to a single descendant (e.g., 2 Sam. 7:12, 13). In

Genesis 3:15 we find both usages present. We read about the descen-

dants of both the woman (the faithful church) and the serpent/Satan

(his followers) but also about a single male descendant of the woman

(“He”) who will “crush” “your [singular] head”; that is, the serpent’s

head. Whenever “seed” denotes a particular descendant, the pronoun

that follows it is in the singular. The “Seed” of the woman is Jesus.

What Genesis 3:15 suggests is that as soon as sin entered the world,

God’s eternal plan of salvation through Christ was put into effect.

Adam and Eve did not experience eternal death because, from the

divine perspective, Christ is the Lamb “that was slain from the cre-

ation of the world” (Rev. 13:8, NIV). Adam and Eve left the Garden of

Eden, looking forward to the fulfillment of the wonderful promise of

salvation.

Right from the start, God’s plan was to redeem us and to

destroy Satan. What are you doing, day by day, to avail yourself

of this wonderful provision so that, when all’s finished, you’re

among the redeemed and not among the destroyed?

(Remember, in the end, it’s one or the other.)

MONDAY

October 27

Abraham Saw My Day

Read

Genesis 22:1–12. What was the nature of the test that Abraham

was subjected to? Why would the Lord ask Abraham to do this?

What deep issues were at stake here?

____________________________________________________________________

Genesis 22 does not inform us why the test was necessary, but the

reason appears to be related to the covenant God made with Abraham.

In the covenant relationship the Lord expected the patriarch to “ ‘walk

before me and be blameless’ ” (Gen. 17:1, NIV), a standard that

Abraham hadn’t always reached (Gen. 16:1–4, 20:1–10).

Isaac was the son of the covenant promise, the one through whom

Abraham was to bless the world, and thus, without that son the prom-

ises that God had made to the patriarch could not have been fulfilled.

In a sense, by asking Abraham to sacrifice him, God was telling

Abraham that the covenant relationship had come to an end and that

the special promises made to him were now over. Abraham was not

going to be God’s instrument in blessing all the nations of the earth

(Gen. 12:3), after all. But Abraham revealed his faith and commitment

to the Lord, particularly in his willingness to return the gift of his son

to God, fully trusting in His mercy and grace (Heb. 11:19).

What

made it possible for the covenant to be renewed? Gen. 22:13–18.

By asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, God was pronouncing a

sentence against him and bringing to an end His special purpose for

him. All this, however, changed in a radical way when a ram was

offered in place of Isaac. God provided what Abraham desperately

needed, a sacrificial animal that could take the place of his son, mak-

ing it possible for the Lord to renew the covenant with him. The

human sacrifice (i.e., the death of a sinner) was substituted by the sac-

rificial victim provided by the Lord, not by Abraham. Thus, Abraham

saw the mystery of the gospel, of substitutionary atonement, because

through Jesus, “ ‘it [the sacrificial offering] will be provided’ ” (Gen.

22:14, NIV).

Our minds tremble at the faith of Abraham. What things are

you being called to sacrifice, by faith, before the Lord? What

things, if any, might you need to surrender in order for the

covenant blessings to remain yours?

TUESDAY

October 28

Moses and the Revelation of Salvation

What

was God’s reaction to the act of idolatry of the people of Israel

on Mount Sinai? Why was it so strong? Exod. 32:7–10.

This act of idolatry was an act of rebellion against God, a breaking

of the covenant that God had just made with them. Like Adam and

Eve, the Israelites were left in a state of alienation—and they would

have been left to perish had it not been for Moses’intercession in their

behalf (Exod. 32:11–14).

What

did Moses say to God after this incident? Exod. 32:30–32. How

is the promise of the gospel seen here?

Moses did not excuse the people; he made it clear to them that they

had sinned against God. But he also told them that he was going to

approach the Lord to ask Him to forgive them. Moses knew that for-

giveness is very costly and that it should not be confused with indif-

ference to sin. (The Lord’s reaction to their idolatry more than proved

that!) Moses himself became the mediator of the people, their inter-

cessor before the Lord, seeking to obtain for them redemption from

their sin. He then did the inconceivable: He offered himself to the

Lord as a means of atonement! He was willing to have his name

deleted from the book of life (Exod. 32:32; see also Ps. 69:28, Phil.

4:3) if that would make it possible for the people to be restored to har-

mony with the Lord.

Obviously, the Lord could not accept that unselfish offer. Moses’

life could not atone for sin.

How

would the Lord finally solve the problem? Exod. 34:6–10.

The Lord revealed Himself to Moses as a forgiving God. This for-

giveness is all-inclusive: “ ‘forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin’ ”

(vs. 7, NIV). The Hebrew word translated “forgiving” literally means

“bearing.” The way God deals with our sin is by removing it from us

and bearing it Himself. Moses could not do that; God had already

decided that He would do it through His Servant. What Moses and the

children of Israel needed was provided by God.

God was ready to wipe them out for their idolatry! What should

this reaction tell us about how God views sin? What should this

tell us about how we must get sin out of our own lives?

WEDNESDAY

October 29

The Servant of the Lord

Read

Isaiah 52:13–53:12. What great hope and promise are found

here for us?

These verses present one of the most majestic passages of the Old

Testament. This section establishes, without explicitly stating it, the

limits and ineffectiveness of the Israelite sacrificial system as a means

of expiation (the removal of the barrier between humanity and God).

The problem of sin was so serious that only the Servant of the Lord

could solve it. The passage describes the experiences of both the peo-

ple and the Servant.

The People: The people went through two experiences, one of dis-

belief and misjudgment, the other of confession and contrition.

Initially, the Servant was perceived as unattractive, almost like a leper

(Isa. 52:14) and as someone “stricken by God, smitten by him” (Isa.

53:4, NIV). Because God appeared to have rejected Him, they, too,

despised and rejected Him (vs. 3). Then they realized that there was a

divine purpose in the experience of the Servant; that He was taking

their sorrows and infirmities (vs. 4) on Himself. He was bearing their

sins, and as their Substitute, He was dying for them. In the light of the

sacrifice of the Servant, they saw themselves as they truly were: “We

all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (vs. 6, NIV). Only

by looking at the Cross can we perceive the distortions of sin in our

lives.

The Servant: The experience of the Servant was extremely painful.

He was lonely, rejected by all (vs. 3), loaded with sorrows and suffer-

ing, oppressed and afflicted (vs. 7), and even “cut off from the land of

the living” (vs. 8, NIV). Yet, there was no justification for this treat-

ment because “he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his

mouth” (vs. 9, NIV). Why was this innocent Person suffering? It was

because the Lord was presenting the Servant’s life as a “guilt offering”

(vs. 10, NIV). He was bearing the iniquities of the people, dying in

their place in order to declare them righteous and innocent (vss. 11,

12). But after that sacrificial death, He was to see light again (vs. 11)

and to be highly exalted (Isa. 52:13).

This prophetic depiction of the sacrificial death of Christ was

offered by Isaiah as the only effective way of expiation from sin.

Christ became what we are in order for us to be restored to fellowship

with God.

Read again Isaiah 52:13–53:12, paying special attention to all

that Jesus has done for us on the cross. What hope do you see in

there for yourself?

THURSDAY

October 30

Announced in Daniel

Read

Daniel 9:7–11. In his prayer, how did Daniel describe the con-

dition of the people?

In order to experience divine healing and freedom from sin, we

must first recognize our condition as sinners and as violators of God’s

revealed will. A fundamental human problem is our unwillingness to

acknowledge that there is something seriously wrong with us, that we

are in desperate need of forgiveness and reconciliation with our

Creator. Even forgiven sinners constantly must recognize, as Daniel

did, that we are in daily need of God’s forgiving grace.

What

is Daniel’s specific request to the Lord? On what basis is Daniel

making this request? Dan. 9:16–19.

____________________________________________________________________

Once we realize our condition as sinners, one of the most important

discoveries we can make concerning our relationship with God is that

the only thing we have to do to receive forgiveness is to ask for it.

Daniel was totally relying on God’s mercy, on His wonderful grace, as

the only way out of His status as sinner.

In this chapter we also find a prophecy in which God revealed not

only how He was planning to address the problem of sin but also the

time frame within which this would happen, the when (see Dan.

9:24–27). The how was through His Anointed One, the Messiah, the

King to which all the other kings of Israel pointed and represented.

The time for His sacrificial death and the initiation of His priestly

work (the anointing of the sanctuary) is given in terms of 70 weeks

(490 years). The prophetic period runs from 457 B.C. to A.D. 34. God

expected His people to be ready for the coming of the Messiah. What

this incredible prophecy shows, in a very clear way, is not only that

God is in absolute control of every aspect of His work of salvation but

that He will make sure it accomplishes its eternally intended purpose.

How important is it for you to remain aware that, although you

ve accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are in constant need of

His forgiving grace? Is that a threat to your assurance of salva-

tion or a way of affirming that assurance? Give reasons for your

answer.

FRIDAY

October 31

Further Study:

Instant Substitute: “The instant man accepted the

temptations of Satan, and did the very things God had said he should

not do, Christ, the Son of God, stood between the living and the dead,

saying, ‘Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man’s place. He

shall have another chance.’ ”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA

Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 1085.

Sacrifice of Isaac: “The sacrifice required of Abraham was not

alone for his own good, nor solely for the benefit of succeeding gen-

erations; but it was also for the instruction of the sinless intelligences

of heaven and of other worlds. The field of the controversy between

Christ and Satan—the field on which the plan of redemption is

wrought out—is the lesson book of the universe. Because Abraham

had shown a lack of faith in God’s promises, Satan had accused him

before the angels and before God of having failed to comply with the

conditions of the covenant, and as unworthy of its blessings. God

desired to prove the loyalty of His servant before all heaven, to

demonstrate that nothing less than perfect obedience can be accepted,

and to open more fully before them the plan of salvation.”—Ellen G.

White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 154, 155.

Importance of Isaiah 53: “This chapter should be studied. It pre-

sents Christ as the Lamb of God. Those who are lifted up with pride,

whose souls are filled with vanity, should look upon this picture of

their Redeemer, and humble themselves in the dust. The entire chap-

ter should be committed to memory. Its influence will subdue and

humble the soul defiled by sin and uplifted by self-exaltation.”—Ellen

G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 1147.

Discussion Questions:

● Go back through the week’s lesson. Take everything that’s

taught each day and write a summary of all that we can learn

about the plan of salvation from what God has revealed in these

Old Testament accounts. Bring what you’ve learned and share it

with the class.

● Read the first Ellen White quote listed above. What does that

tell us about the character of God? What does it mean to have

“another chance”?

● As a class, go over the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah.

What other lessons can we take from it about what it means to

live by faith?

Summary:

Centuries before Christ was on this earth the Lord gave us

promises of salvation. Those promises were fulfilled in a very precise

way. The question remains, How should we respond to the reliability

and trustworthiness of the Lord as revealed in the fulfillment of those

promises?

tor

INSIDE

The Radiant Light

Hidemi Sugawara stopped halfway down the aisle of her church and

blinked in stunned silence. Her seat was taken. In fact, the front half of the

church was full. Where could she sit? How would she hear?

Hidemi was a faithful Adventist Christian. She had lived in rural Japan

for years, but as she grew older and had more trouble getting around, she

decided to move to the city. She found an Adventist church near a subway

stop and began attending. She missed her old friends from her country

church and found it difficult to make new friends in the large city.

She sat in the front of the church to hear better. But this Sabbath the

front pews of the church were full. She found a seat toward the back. But

she couldn’t hear the service. She watched as people stood and knelt, but

she heard only mumbled noises. What’s the use of coming if I can’t hear?

She asked herself. I may as well stay home and pray and sing alone.

As the pastor prayed the benediction his face suddenly shone with a

radiant light. Then as the worshipers walked down the aisle toward the

door, she saw that everyone wore that same radiant light. Am I dreaming?

she wondered. Or are my eyes going bad too?

She walked out of the church and started toward the subway. She exam-

ined the faces of the people who passed by. They looked normal enough.

But when she turned and looked at the church, she saw that same radiant

light on it. What is happening? she wondered. She saw some church mem-

bers at the subway station and noticed that they still wore the radiant light.

Then she understood. God wanted her to continue attending church, and

He wanted her to know that He had a special blessing for His people and

His church. If she continued attending church, surely God would bless her

as well.

Hidemi realized that as she fretted over her inability to hear, she had

missed the blessing God had for her by simply

being with believers in His church. It was not

so important to hear everything that was said;

just being there was enough. She continued

attending church and brought her friends as

well. In time she made many friends in the

church, young and old.

Mission begins in our homes and our

churches and spreads like beams of light

around the world. Tell a neighbor; tell the

world that Jesus loves them.

HIDEMI SUGAWARA (left) lives near Chiba, Japan.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*November 1–7

Atonement in

Symbols: Part 1

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Gen. 3:21; 4:3–5; Lev.

17:11; Rom. 3:23; Eph. 2:11–13; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19.

Memory Text:

“For you know that it was not with perishable

things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the

empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but

with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or

defect” (1 Peter 1:18, 19, NIV).

Key Thought:

To show how the Old Testament sacrificial system

pointed to the sacrifice of Christ.

n the Bible the sacrificial system was established in order to illus-

trate how God was going to solve the problem of sin. At the cen-

ter of the service was the blood of the sacrificial animal. The life

of the animal was poured out so that the life of the repentant sinner

could be saved. The animal was a symbol of Jesus, who would give

His life in place of ours.

When repentant sinners brought their sacrifices to the Lord, they

were acknowledging that they were sinners who deserved death. But

they also were manifesting faith, trusting that the Lord would grant

them forgiveness by accepting the life of the sacrificial victim in their

stead. Assuming responsibility for our sin is indispensable (this is

known as repentance and confession). Only those who, in the light of

the Cross, see themselves as sinners in need of forgiveness and

humbly find in Christ the Lamb of God that takes away their sin will

experience cleansing.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 8.

SUNDAY

November 2

Atonement and Animal Sacrifices

How

far back can we trace the origin of animal sacrifice in the Bible?

See Gen. 3:21, 4:3–5.

In the Bible, the sacrificial victim and the repentant sinner who

brought it were identified with each other so closely that the life of the

animal stood for the life of the person, and the animal’s blood became

a means of atonement (Lev. 17:11).

Read

Leviticus 17:11. What is the important message of this text to

us?

A lot of symbolism is found in the biblical sacrificial system. First,

because the death of an animal stood for the death of the individual,

the sacrificial act was an act of salvation, a manifestation of God’s

grace and love. He was willing to accept the death of another creature

in order to preserve the life of humans and to continue fellowshiping

with them. Second, according to the Bible, the life of an animal could

not really atone for the life of a sinner; consequently, the death of sac-

rificial victims had a symbolic function only. It pointed beyond itself

to the death of the Seed of the woman, Jesus, who would give His life

as a ransom in place of many (Mark 10:45). Third, the killing of the

sacrificial animal also illustrated the seriousness of sin and the costli-

ness of forgiveness. Taking the life of an animal must have been very

painful to Adam and Eve; probably to most Israelites, as well. The

process helped them understand that sin is inseparable from death and

that forgiveness is not the same as overlooking sin. The price God will

pay for our redemption will be the “precious blood of Christ, a lamb

without blemish or defect” (1 Pet. 1:19, NIV).

At the moment sin entered into the world, God instituted a sacrifi-

cial system that had these symbolic and teaching functions. The first

sacrifice that Adam and Eve offered was a wonderful explosion of

hope in the coming Redeemer, a hope offered in the midst of the pain

of guilt and death.

How seriously do you take the problem of sin? The answer can

be found by how you answer the next question: How much suf-

fering do you put yourself through trying to overcome sin? See

1 Pet. 4:1.

MONDAY

November 3

Sin and Impurity

The book of Leviticus deals, in detail, with the problem of sin and

impurity, but it especially emphasizes the topic of purity/impurity or

purification/contamination. Impurity is considered as damaging to the

covenant relationship as a moral sin itself. The instructions concern-

ing impurity have the purpose of motivating the Israelites to avoid

anything that could contaminate them. The laws regarding purifica-

tion instructed them concerning how they could be restored to a state

of purity before the Lord.

There are several sources of impurity, some of which are unavoid-

able. For example, there is the contamination that a woman incurs dur-

ing childbirth (Leviticus 12). In this case the contamination is the

result of the blood discharge that accompanies the childbirth (Lev.

12:4, 5, 7; see also Lev. 15:19–30 for another kind of uncleanliness).

A man with a blood discharge was also considered unclean (Lev.

15:1–15; see also vss. 16–18).

In those cases the individual was a carrier, a contaminating agent;

therefore, he or she was forbidden to contact anybody else or any holy

thing. Obviously, the emphasis on washing and quarantine suggests a

hygienic concern. But there was also a theological interest. The

impure person was not allowed to come into contact with other peo-

ple and was excluded from the sanctuary. “Impurity” thus becomes a

metaphor to express a person’s alienation from God and others. In

fact, impurity is usually associated with death. It is connected with

dead bodies (Num. 6:6, 7, 11), diseases (Leviticus 13, 14), blood dis-

charge (a way of letting life run away), and the emission of semen,

which is the “seed” of life. The leper was totally impure and consid-

ered as dead (Num. 12:9–12).

The impure person was in the realm of death and could be removed

from that place only through a cleansing ritual. Otherwise, he or she

would be permanently separated from God and the rest of the people

of God (Lev. 15:31). The biblical concept of impurity indicates that

humans are almost in a natural state of contamination existing in an

environment that is fundamentally unclean. They need cleansing in

order to be free to approach the Lord. This cleansing was primarily

possible through the blood of the sacrificial victim (Lev. 12:8).

Read Ephesians 2:11–13. Although the language of impurity is

not used, how is the concept, as explained above, present in these

texts? What kind of “impurity” do we face today? How can we

be cleansed of it?

TUESDAY

November 4

The Sacrifices

Read

Leviticus 4:3, 13, 22, 27. What do these verses tell us about sin

and about who needs atonement for their sin? See Rom. 3:23, 5:12.

____________________________________________________________________

We can learn a number of lessons from these sin offerings.

First, the type of animal brought as a sin offering depended on the

financial condition of the individual (Lev. 5:7–12), which showed that

the Lord was sensitive to the financial situation of the people. For us,

the point shouldn’t be missed: Salvation through Christ is for all peo-

ple, regardless of their status in the world.

Second, the sacrificial victim was expected to be unblemished,

healthy, and without physical defects (Lev. 4:3). The sinner was defec-

tive and morally blemished, but the sacrificial victim that represented

the Lamb of God wasn’t.

Read

1 Peter 1:18, 19. What important aspect of Jesus was prefigured

in those unblemished sacrifices, and why is that aspect so impor-

tant to us and the plan of salvation? Rom. 5:19, 2 Cor. 5:21, Heb.

4:15.

____________________________________________________________________

Another important point to remember: The sin offering atones for

both unintentional and intentional sin (Lev. 5:1–5) and ritual impurity

(Lev. 12:6, 7). What’s the moral lesson for us? It’s that there was no

sin that God could not forgive if the sinner repented from it. Moral and

ritual impurity was symbolically removed from repentant sinners

through the sacrificial blood. But, in fact, only the blood of Christ

could cleanse from sin. The great news for us, prefigured in these sac-

rifices, is that no matter our past, no matter how badly we have fallen,

we can, through Jesus, find restitution, healing, forgiveness, and

cleansing.

It’s easy, at times, to doubt your salvation. Ma

ybe at times it’s

even good to question your standing before God. After all, there

will be those who thought they were saved who, in the end, won’t

be (Matt. 7:22, 23). How can you find the assurance you need

while, at the same time, not be presumptuous?

WEDNESDAY

November 5

Removal of Sin/Impurity

What

were the roles of the priest and the individual in the sacrifices

depicted in the following verses? Lev. 4:5–7, 28–31.

____________________________________________________________________

Several rituals are important when seeking to understand the sacri-

ficial offerings. When the repentant sinner brought the sacrificial vic-

tim to the sanctuary, the sinner placed a hand on the head of the ani-

mal and leaned on it. In the daily sacrifices the laying on of hands was

associated with the phrase “be accepted on his behalf to make atone-

ment for him” (Lev. 1:4, NIV), indicating that the sinner fully identi-

fied with the sacrificial victim. The sacrificial victim was at that

moment standing for him or her before God, bearing the sin of the

individual.

The sacrificial victim was commonly killed by the individual,

although there were exceptions (Lev. 1:14, 15; 5:8). This sacrificial

act is especially meaningful when placed in the context of the state of

guilt and alienation in which repentant sinners found themselves.

Because of the violation of the covenant, sinners were heading toward

death, but that death was actualized in the sacrificial victim, not in the

repentant sinner, whose life was then spared by God. Sin and penalty

cannot be separated from each other. The transfer of the one implies

the transfer of the other. This found its fulfillment in Christ’s death on

the cross, where our sin was transferred to Him and where He died the

death that should have been ours.

Besides the laying on of hands and the death of the animal, another

ritual was the bringing of the blood into the sanctuary, the means by

which sin was brought there. In some cases it was sprinkled inside the

tabernacle (Lev. 4:6), and at other times it was applied to the horns of

the altar of sacrifices (vs. 30). When sin was not taken inside the sanc-

tuary in this manner, sin was transferred to it through the priest. On

those occasions he had to eat the flesh of the sin offering, thus bear-

ing the sin of the people in his own person (Lev. 10:17). God was

assuming responsibility for the sin of repentant sinners. This pointed

to Christ’s high-priestly ministry on our behalf.

Think through the meaning of these sacrifices and what they

were pointing to: Christ dying in our stead for our sins. How

should the reality of His death impact our daily life? More

important, how does that death impact it in your own case?

THURSDAY

November 6

Other Sacrifices

What

was the function of the burnt offering? Lev. 1:3–9, 22:17–22.

In Leviticus the burnt offering is an atoning sacrifice, but other

functions predominate. Because the sacrifice was totally burned on

the altar and was accepted for the person, it represented total conse-

cration to the Lord. It also was offered as a votive or freewill offering

(Lev. 22:17–22). The votive offering was brought after a vow was ful-

filled to express gratitude to the Lord. The freewill offering was an

expression of personal devotion, thanksgiving, and joy.

What

was the function of the peace/fellowship offering? Lev. 7:12, 16.

The peace offering could be offered as a thanksgiving offering, a

votive offering, and a freewill offering (Lev. 7:12, 15, 16). This sug-

gests that the sacrificial act was a joyful occasion (1 Sam. 11:14, 15;

1 Kings 8:62, 63). The fact that the Lord gave back the flesh of the

sacrifice to the worshiper to eat it with relatives and friends in His

presence (Deut. 12:17, 18) indicates that the sacrifice strengthened

the covenant relation through communion with God and other

Israelites (Deut. 27:7, 1 Kings 8:63).

What

was the function of the meal offering? Lev. 2:1–10.

The meal offering was from the fruits of the land and was a recog-

nition of God’s gracious provision for His people. Everything

belonged to God, but He requested that a small portion of it be

brought by the people as an expression of gratitude (Deut. 26:9, 10).

It was accompanied by the “salt of the covenant” (Lev. 2:13, NIV). Salt

was used in the ancient Near East as a preservative and therefore was

an appropriate symbol of the binding nature of the covenant (2 Chron.

13:5). The offering was an expression of the person’s willingness to

preserve the covenant relationship with the Lord.

In the Old Testament we find so many different offerings with

complementary functions, while in the New Testament we find

only one single sacrifice. What does that suggest concerning the

nature and efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice? What assurance can

you take for yourself from this one sacrifice?

FRIDAY

November 7

Further Study:

“The very system of sacrifices was devised by Christ,

and given to Adam as typifying a Saviour to come, who would bear the

sins of the world, and die for its redemption. Through Moses, Christ gave

definite directions to the children of Israel in regard to the sacrificial

offerings. . . . Only clean and precious animals, those which would best

symbolize Christ, were accepted as offerings to God. . . .”—Ellen G.

White, Sons and Daughters of God, p. 225.

“To many it has been a mystery why so many sacrificial offerings

were required in the old dispensation, why so many bleeding victims

were led to the altar. But the great truth that was to be kept before

men, and imprinted upon mind and heart, was this, ‘Without shedding

of blood is no remission.’ In every bleeding sacrifice was typified ‘the

Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ ”—Ellen G.

White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 932.

“Since the announcement to the serpent in Eden, ‘I will put enmity

between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed’ (Gen.

3:15), Satan had known that he did not hold absolute sway over the

world. . . . With intense interest he watched the sacrifices offered by Adam

and his sons. In these ceremonies he discerned a symbol of communion

between earth and heaven. He set himself to intercept this communion.

He misrepresented God, and misinterpreted the rites that pointed to the

Saviour. Men were led to fear God as one who delighted in their destruc-

tion. The sacrifices that should have revealed His love were offered only

to appease His wrath.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 115.

Discussion Questions:

● According to the third Ellen White quote above, Satan per-

verted the meaning of the sacrifice. In what ways could we be in

danger of perverting the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice? What

views of the Cross distort its meaning?

● Unlike the Israelites, we don’t have daily physical reminders of

the cost of sin; that is, we don’t live in the constant presence of

sacrifice, as did the Israelites in the wilderness. In what ways,

however, can we help keep the amazing death of Jesus in our

behalf always before us so that we never forget what Christ has

done to give us the hope of eternal life?

● Explain in practical terms how you can consecrate everything

you have to the Lord. What does that mean, and how can you do it?

Summary:

God instituted the sacrificial system after the entrance of

sin in order to remind people about the costliness of forgiveness and

the future sacrifice of His Son. Different sacrifices were offered in

order to expiate specific sins, to cleanse from impurity, and to express

the deepest feelings of humility and adoration of the repentant sinners.

tor

INSIDE

Faithful, No Matter What

by KIRAN KUMAR PANDA

Asish lives in eastern India. Asish, like everyone in his village, wor-

shiped idols. For years Asish and his wife prayed for a child, but no child

blessed their home. Asish began searching for the true God who could

answer his prayer. He heard a lay evangelist talk about Jesus. He invited

the evangelist to study the Bible with him. Asish accepted Jesus as his

Savior and asked the evangelist to hold prayer meetings in his house.

Some of Asish’s relatives saw the changes in him and asked him what had

happened to him. Asish invited them to the prayer meetings, and many

came. In time his brothers and sisters accepted Jesus as their Savior.

Neighbors also came to hear about the true God, and some of them believed.

Asish’s sister was married to a man who continued worshiping idols.

There was no peace in their home. Then she became sick and was admit-

ted to the hospital. The doctors gave her little hope of surviving and told

the family to let her die. But Asish prayed for her, and within days she

recovered. When her husband saw God’s power, he gave up his idols and

became a Christian.

But as more and more people accepted Christ and worshiped with the

Christians, trouble brewed in the village. Some villagers complained to

their leaders, and the leaders pressured the new believers to leave their

new faith and return to idol worship. Some gave in, but Asish refused to

renounce his faith, no matter what it might cost him.

Leaders from the surrounding area tried to force Asish to reconvert, but

he refused. They beat him, and still he refused. Then they forced him to

leave the village. The family was not allowed to have the village firewood

or water from the village well; and they had to go to another village to buy

their necessities.

Asish began having strange pains in his body and became convinced

that devils had entered him. He asked the lay evangelist to pray for him,

and soon he was feeling well again. Soon Asish and his wife had their

longed-for child. Another Hindu couple who was childless came for

prayer, and they also conceived.

Asish and his fellow Christians still are not allowed to enter the village.

But Asish tells them he will die serving the true and living God. He invites

those who want a powerful God to come and learn about Jesus.

Our mission offerings help provide lay evangelists tools to reach into

remote areas such as Asish’s village. Thank you for giving generously so

that we can tell the world about our powerful God.

KIRAN KUMAR PANDA is a pastor in Sambalpur District in Orissa State, India.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

Just 15 years ago the Adventist Church in Mongolia reorganized after many

years of oppression. Today the majority of believers are under the age of 35.

Some 250 of these young believers study at state universities in

Ulaanbaatar, the capital city. Most live in government-run dormitories.

Living and studying in a secular environment makes it tough for them to

maintain their faith. Because of this, many students’ spiritual lives erode

during their university years.

The Adventist Church wants to change that. A dormitory for Adventist

students will provide a safe environment for them to live and study, an

environment that will strengthen their faith instead of destroy it.

Part of my Thirteenth Sabbath offering this quarter will help this project

and strengthen the future Church leaders in Mongolia. I’m glad that I can

help my church care for its youth. For me, it’s personal.

L ESSON

*November 8–14

Atonement in

Symbols: Part 2

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Leviticus 16, Num. 18:1–8,

Pss. 28:2, 132:7, 138:2.

Memory Text:

“ ‘Let us go to his [God’s] dwelling place; let us

worship at his footstool’ ” (Psalm 132:7, NIV).

Key Thought:

To look at the atoning work of Christ as revealed

particularly in the Day of Atonement sanctuary service.

he Israelite sanctuary was cleansed once a year from the sin and

impurities of Israel, which were transferred there through the

daily sacrifices. The yearly ritual symbolically represented the

time when God, from His heavenly dwelling place, would bring an end

to the problem of sin and restore the whole universe to its original har-

mony.

During this week, we will study not only the symbolic meaning of

the Day of Atonement but also how the Israelite sanctuary pointed to

God’s heavenly dwelling, the throne room of the universe.

We will also discuss the priests in the Old Testament and how their

work of mediation prefigured the work of Christ as our Mediator and

Intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 15.

SUNDAY

November 9

Sanctuary and Atonement

What

do the following verses teach us about the role of the sanctuary

in the experience and life of the Israelites? Exod. 25:8, 22; 29:42,

43; Pss. 28:2; 132:7; 138:2.

____________________________________________________________________

The Israelite sacrificial system was centered on and operated within

the sanctuary, the earthly dwelling of God. It was the center of life and

of holiness in Israel. Within that unique space God dealt with the

problem of sin. He commanded the Israelites to build an altar in the

courtyard of the sanctuary, and it was upon this altar that the sacrifi-

cial blood was placed in order to make atonement for the people (Lev.

17:11). Blood, as a tangible expression of life, belonged to God, and

it was to be returned to Him there, on the altar.

In the plan of salvation, the life of the animal stood for the life of

the repentant sinner, and God would accept the death of the innocent

animal in place of the sinner’s death. The altar was a symbol of God’s

presence (Ps. 43:4), and by accepting the sacrifice, God was assum-

ing responsibility for the sin of the person. In other words, the Lord

was telling the Israelites, “If you have sinned and want to get rid of

this enslaving power, bring it to Me, to My dwelling place, and I will

take care of it. Bring it to Me!” The Israelites left the sanctuary

blessed by the Lord and justified by His grace (Pss. 24:3–5, 118:26).

All this was symbolic of the work of Jesus, our real High Priest. The

heavenly sanctuary is the dwelling of God within the cosmos and the

place from which He rules as King of the universe; it’s also the place

in which the sin problem is being resolved. The cross was the altar on

which the sacrifice was offered for us. Today God says to us, “If you

want freedom from sin, and forgiveness of sin, come to the altar of

sacrifice where My Son paid the penalty for your sins!”

Someone asked a friend, “How can I know what God is really

like?” The person responded, “Look at Jesus on the cross, dying

for the sins of the world.” How does the Cross tell us what God

is really like? What comfort and hope can you draw for yourself

from that revelation of God?

MONDAY

November 10

Priestly Work and Atonement

Why

was it necessary to have a priesthood who operated in His tem-

ple? Num. 18:1–8.

The fundamental work of the priests was to mediate between God

and the people. The priests represented God before the people in their

teaching ministry (Deut. 33:10). Closely related to that work was the

priestly duty of revealing God’s will to those who sought divine guid-

ance (Num. 27:21). The priests also functioned as judges in the sanc-

tuary. In fact, the highest tribunal of the land operated at the central

sanctuary (Deut. 17:8–13, 21:5). They were especially responsible for

blessing the people (Deut. 10:8, 21:5). They represented the people

before God. In their representative role they took the people with them

to the presence of the Lord (Exod. 28:9–12, 29).

Their role as mediators was particularly visible during the daily

services. They were in charge of the altar of the burnt offering and

were to keep the sacred fire burning on it, removing the ashes and

bringing new wood (Lev. 6:10–13). They placed a burnt offering on

that altar in the morning and then another in the evening (Num.

28:3–8). During daily services the high priest went into the Holy

Place to dress the lampstand and to burn incense before the Lord

(Exod. 30:7, 8). Also, whenever an Israelite brought a sacrifice, the

priests sacrificed it on his or her behalf to make atonement for the sin-

ner (Lev. 1:5–9; 4:25, 26, 34, 35).

The priest’s role of mediator served at least three main purposes.

First, it suggested that despite the fundamental distance between God

and humans, there was a way to close the gap. Second, it revealed

God’s desire to be with His people. It manifested God’s love seeking

a way to become accessible to them, despite their sin. Third, from the

perspective of the Israelites, the priesthood gave them access to the

Holy One of Israel and the opportunity to be cleansed from sin and

impurity. The priestly mediators were always available in order to

make it possible for the people to approach God and find grace and

mercy.

The whole system, of course, pointed to the ultimate Mediator

between God and humans, the Servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Through the work of Christ we are part of the “royal priest-

hood” (1 Pet. 2:9). What is your role in that priesthood? How

can you function as “priest” for other people?

TUESDAY

November 11

Day of Atonement: Part 1

The Day of Atonement ritual illustrated the final resolution of the

sin problem, the consummation of the salvation as experienced

through the daily services. The whole tabernacle was to be cleansed,

the Holy and Most Holy Places. They needed cleansing because of the

“uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have

been” (Lev. 16:16, NIV). These sins had been transferred to the divine

dwelling through the sacrifices brought by repentant sinners. During

the Day of Atonement the tabernacle was restored to its original pris-

tine cleanliness and holiness. On that day, once a year, there was a

fragment of space that, like the Garden of Eden, was free from the

presence of sin and impurity. This “return” to Eden, celebrated at the

end of the year, provided a fresh beginning for the people of Israel. It

pointed to a new beginning of cosmic proportions (compare Dan.

8:14).

Read

specifically Leviticus 16:16, 17, 21, 30, 33, 34. What specific

emphasis can you find there? Whose sins are being dealt with on

that day, in contrast to the daily ritual? Lev. 1:1–4.

____________________________________________________________________

The texts indicate the all-encompassing nature of the cleansing,

because all the sins of all the people were dealt with. It was a corpo-

rate act, dealing with Israel as a whole. This was God’s final disposi-

tion of the sin problem in Israel for that year, and it prefigured the

final disposition of sin at the end of time (Heb. 9:28).

What

did God expect from His people during that day? Lev. 23:26–31.

However much the Day of Atonement was a corporate event,

involving the whole nation, each individual had a role to play in giv-

ing himself or herself over to the Lord completely. Those who were

not found resting in the Lord and humbling themselves before Him

were to be “cut off from his people” (Lev. 23:29, NIV). However harsh

that sounds, the point is to emphasize how solemn the work of salva-

tion was. The passage is, among other things, promoting perseverance

in one’s walk with the Lord.

How, in a sense, are we to “afflict” our souls on a daily basis?

What does that mean? See Matt. 16:24, 25; Rom. 6:1–13; Heb. 12:4.

WEDNESDAY

November 12

Day of Atonement: Part 2

Read

the scapegoat ritual as found in Leviticus 16:20–22. What is

taught by this ritual? Focus especially on the fate of that animal as

compared to all the others used in the service.

____________________________________________________________________

The “scapegoat” (Heb. azazel) is not a means of atonement but a

vehicle through which sin and impurity are carried to the wilderness.

How do we know this?

First, the transfer of sin and impurity to this animal takes place

after the high priest finished the work of atonement in the sanctuary.

Second, the goat is not offered as a sacrifice; it is not slaughtered,

and therefore no blood is available for atonement. Third, although it

“carries/bears” the sins of the people, that does not mean that it car-

ries them vicariously, as in the sense of a substitute, like Jesus. In this

case the context shows that the verb means “to carry” to another place,

i.e., “the wilderness” (Lev. 16:22, NASB). When the same verb is used

to describe the work of the Servant of the Lord, it stands alone: “he

bare the sins of many” (Isa. 53:12). He is not carrying them anywhere,

but assuming responsibility for them Himself and, through that act,

forgiving us. That is what atonement is, and that’s not what the scape-

goat does.

Instead, the scapegoat ritual is an elimination rite; in other words,

the scapegoat is a means of eliminating or removing from the camp of

Israel something that should not be there—sin and impurity.

During the Day of Atonement there was a confrontation between the

Lord and another power. The goat for the Lord represented God; the

goat for azazel represented the opposing power, a demon, the ultimate

source of sin and impurity. By sending the sins of the people to azazel

through the goat, this power was being named as the originator of sin.

God had accepted the sin and impurity of His people in order to atone

for them and to forgive their sins, but that did not mean that He was

the originator of evil. The Day of Atonement announced in symbols

the final victory of holiness and purity over the forces of sin, impurity,

and evil. It anticipated the moment when the charges raised by Lucifer

in heaven will be once and for all resolved, and Lucifer will have to

assume responsibility for originating sin. Through this ritual God was

instilling hope in His people by pointing to a future in which, through

the power of Christ, a new creation will come into existence, one free

from death and pain, free from the power of sin (Rev. 21:3, 4).

THURSDAY

November 13

Atonement: What Is It?

Which

ideas are associated with the verb “to make atonement” in the

following passages? Lev. 4:31; 16:18, 19, 30; 17:11.

In Leviticus, though the priests officiate in the atoning rituals as

mediators, they are not the ones who atone for sin. After the ritual is

performed, God grants the forgiveness (Lev. 4:26; the passive form of

the verb implies that God is the One who forgives). Atonement is

something that God performs for His people. He is the One who

“make[s] atonement for his land and people” (Deut. 32:43, NIV; also

Pss. 65:3, 79:9). Through atonement, God allows His love to flow to

sinners.

The Hebrew verb translated “to make atonement” in Leviticus (Heb.

kipper) expresses the idea of wiping off or purging. Atonement is

made for the tabernacle, the altar, the horns of the altar, meaning that

they are purged, cleansed from the defilement of sin and impurity. The

implication is that through atonement they are restored to the original

condition, one free from defilement. When applied to repentant sin-

ners, the verb still retains the idea of cleansing from sin or impurity.

Because the cleansing takes place through the blood of a sacrificial

animal, atonement also can express the idea of ransoming. Freeing a

person from sin is done at the cost of the blood/life of the sacrificial

victim (Lev. 17:11). It was offered in place of the sinner, substituting

for him or her, and therefore it ransomed the life of the person (see

Matt. 20:28, 1 Tim. 2:6).

The verb to make atonement also is employed in Leviticus in a variety

of rituals, making it impossible to conclude that it designates a single act.

That is, atonement is a process rather than something that happens at a

single point in time. The whole sanctuary activity throughout the year

was understood as atonement; from the daily sacrifices (Lev. 5:10) to

the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:34), and all the rituals in between. In

other words, atonement was the totality of the cleansing action of God

for Israel all year, including the sacrificial act, the mediation of the

priest, and the final disposal of sin and impurity during the Day of

Atonement. Thus was typified as the all-inclusive nature of the work

of atonement that Christ is doing for us.

Only God could atone for sin, and it took the life of Christ to do

it. What should that tell us about how bad sin must be? Why,

then, don’t we abhor sin more than we do? How does the prac-

tice of sin deaden our abhorrence of it?

FRIDAY

November 14

Further Study:

“Since Satan is the originator of sin, the direct

instigator of all the sins that caused the death of the Son of God, jus-

tice demands that Satan shall suffer the final punishment. Christ’s

work for the redemption of men and the purification of the universe

from sin will be closed by the removal of sin from the heavenly sanc-

tuary and the placing of these sins upon Satan, who will bear the final

penalty. So in the typical service, the yearly round of ministration

closed with the purification of the sanctuary, and the confessing of the

sins on the head of the scapegoat.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and

Prophets, p. 358.

“Blood and life are associated as lexical pairs and thus understood

as parallel in meaning in . . . Hebrew. Because of this close associa-

tion blood is considered the source of life, and because blood repre-

sents life (Gen. 9:4, Deut. 12:23), it may expiate for life. Because the

life of a creature is in the blood, blood makes atonement for one’s life.

One life is sacrificed for another. The shedding of substitutionary

blood on the altar makes atonement, since the blood of the innocent

victim was given for the life of the one who has sinned.”—Mark F.

Rooker, The New American Commentary: Leviticus, vol. 3A

(Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 2000), p. 236.

Discussion Questions:

● Review the process of atonement and cleansing in the earthly

sanctuary and then compare it to how, in reality, Christ destroys

our sin without destroying us, as well.

● Many people find it hard to understand why innocent animals

had to die in order to make a point about sin. What’s the impor-

tant lesson from these deaths for us? What should it tell us about

the nature of sin?

● All during the week we talked about “cleansing” from sin.

What does that mean on a practical level; that is, in the life of

someone who claims the blood of Christ? 1 John 1:7. What does

it mean to be cleansed of sin?

● Take your answer to Monday’s final question and bring it to

class on Sabbath. Compare responses. How can we, both as indi-

viduals and as a church, better fulfill our role as “priests”?

Summary:

The Day of Atonement was the consummation of the daily

cleansing of the Israelites from sin. It illustrated the time the cleans-

ing power of the sacrificial death of Christ would be consummated

through a work of judgment.

tor

INSIDE

Stubborn Daughter

by SAYORN HENG

I live in Cambodia. We were very poor; our house had a plastic tarp for

a roof. Then in 2001 my family became Christians. But I refused. I wouldn’t

listen to them talk about this Jesus.

I needed to work to help support my family, so I applied at a garment fac-

tory. But I was told I was too young. I asked a Christian missionary how to

find a job, and he told me I should ask Jesus to help me. I didn’t believe in

Jesus, so I prayed to God instead. God answered my prayer, and I got a job.

The man who worked next to me in the garment factory talked to me about

Jesus. It seemed that I was surrounded by Christians!

During my family’s evening worships, I sat outside. But I could hear

them singing and reading the Bible. One night I heard my mother and sis-

ter pray for me. Then I heard them read from the Bible that those who are

not born again shall not see the kingdom of God (John 3:3, NIV). I didn’t

want to be the only one in my family who didn’t go to heaven. I told my

mother that I wanted to be a Christian, and she prayed with me as I gave

my heart to God.

After that I joined the family worship. When I learned about tithing, I

struggled. I worked long hours but earned only $15 a month. How could I

return tithe on that? I prayed that God would help me find a better job, one

that paid by the piece instead of by the day. I promised to return tithe if God

found me a better job, and He did!

I began returning tithe and was offered a better job with better pay. My

wages continued to increase as I faithfully returned tithe. When I realized

the importance of Sabbath, God gave me a job where I could have Sabbaths

off—in an industry that works seven days a week. This is a weekly miracle!

I am amazed that God has been so good to me. One Sabbath I was afraid

for my job, so I went to work. But every few

minutes the needle broke, and I earned noth-

ing that day. I think God was trying to tell me

that He couldn’t bless me if I didn’t honor His

Sabbath.

My faith is growing, and God is blessing.

Now we have enough to eat. I thank God that

He is so patient with me, His stubborn daugh-

ter. We must tell everyone that our God is

great and good! Our mission offerings help

do that.

SAYORN HENG lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*November 15–21

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Matt. 1:18–25; 3:13–17;

4:1–11; 9:35; Mark 1:12, 13; John 1:1, 2, 14; Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3.

Memory Text:

“But you know that he appeared so that he might

take away our sins. And in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5, NIV).

Key Thought:

To show that in the person and work of Christ,

God was bringing humans back to harmony with Him and with

each other.

cientists concede that no matter how much they are learning, the

universe remains full of mystery. The Bible, too, is full of mys-

tery—the greatest one being God’s work for our salvation. This

week we will concentrate on a central theme of that work: the incar-

nation of the Son of God, possibly the greatest mystery in all the cos-

mos. That the Creator condescended to become a creature in a world

of sin and death boggles the mind. How did that amazing event occur?

Only the Godhead knows! One thing we do know, however, is that with-

out the Incarnation there would not be forgiveness of sin and reconcili-

ation with God. The incarnation of the Son of God into human flesh

was an indispensable element in God’s plan for the salvation of the

race.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 22.

Born of a Woman—Atonement

and the

Incarnation

SUNDAY

November 16

Mystery of Incarnation

When told that she would bear a special child, Mary responded in

wonderment. “ ‘How will this be . . . since I am a virgin?’ ” The angel

then said, “ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the

Most High will overshadow you’ ” (Luke 1:34, 35, NIV). This Child

came into our history through the creative power of the Spirit in the

womb of Mary (Matt. 1:18). The verb overshadow reminds us of

Exodus 40:35, where we find a description of the glory of the Lord on

the cloud coming down to dwell among men in the tabernacle. The

Lord was coming down in a mysterious way in order to be conceived

in the womb of this woman.

The coming of Jesus into humanity is precisely about the union of

the divine and the human. Although the two natures remain distinct,

what took place was not simply the indwelling of the divine in the

human but a real incarnation. That is, Christ is truly God and truly

man. The Bible does not tell us what took place at the moment the two

natures were united in the womb of Mary. In the Incarnation God

became human, and the fullness of God dwelt in humanity. This is pre-

cisely what Paul says.

Read

Colossians 2:9. What does it tell us about who Jesus is?

____________________________________________________________________

The point is that Jesus is fully God! Had one or several of the divine

attributes been lost during the Incarnation, we would have had less

than the incarnation of God. Paul states that the preincarnated Christ

was “in very nature God” (Phil. 2:6, NIV), equal to God, but in the

Incarnation He took “the very nature of a servant, being made in

human likeness” (vs. 7, NIV).

Though fully God, Jesus placed everything He had under the

authority of the Father, but in doing that He did not divest Himself of

any of His divine attributes. During the Incarnation there was a con-

cealment of the divine in Jesus, yet Deity was always fully present. For

the purpose of the atonement it was indispensable to have God in

human flesh, because only God could save us.

Read Matthew 1:18–25. How many miraculous things occurred

there, things that can’t be explained other than by the super-

natural intervention of God? What should this tell us about just

how limited we are, in and of ourselves, to understand the most

important truths? Why, just because we can’t understand some-

thing, must we not automatically dismiss it as untrue?

MONDAY

November 17

God and Humanity Reunited

What

evidence do we have that Christ was not only divine but also

human? Matt. 26:38, Luke 2:40, Gal. 4:4.

Ancient Greek philosophy considered human flesh to be intrinsi-

cally evil, a prison for the soul. Accepting this view, some early

Christians concluded that the Son of God could not have come in a

material body but only seemed to have done so. The New Testament,

however, makes it indisputably clear that Jesus was a real human

being. He was born of a woman, grew and developed as a child,

learned obedience (Heb. 5:8), and suffered and died (Matt. 26:38,

Luke 23:46). The Bible also is clear that Jesus was divine, God in

human flesh (John 1:1, 2, 14; Heb. 1:3). The reality of the union of

the human and the divine in Christ is indispensable for the atonement.

Why? Because after the Fall, Adam and Eve and all of their descen-

dants were separated from God, a separation that threatened their exis-

tence. Because it was impossible for humans by themselves to be

reunited with God, the Lord took the initiative and reunited Himself

with humans, and this He did with the Incarnation, when God became

human. Christ became the “place” where the divine intersected the

human in a permanent reunification. In the Incarnation, “divinity and

humanity were mysteriously combined, and man and God became

one.”—Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, July 30, 1896. This unity

was deeper than the unity that originally existed between God and

humans.

How

does Paul refer to Jesus (1 Cor. 15:45), and what does that

mean?

In Jesus there was a new beginning for the human race, a “new”

humanity that was united to God. He was the Creator and the Head of

that new humanity; He was the new Adam from whom a new human

race was coming into existence. Outside of Him there was, and still is,

the old humanity, the one in fallen Adam, the one separated from God

and heading to extinction (1 Cor. 15:22). The only hope for that

humanity is the incarnated God, in whom the divine and the human

were united in eternal bonds of love. Through Christ every human

being who so wishes it can be brought into complete harmony with

God.

Look up at the stars at night. Think about the incredible truth

that the Power who created all those stars (and so much more)

took upon Himself humanity and in that humanity died for

your sins! How should this incredible truth change your life?

TUESDAY

November 18

The Baptism of Jesus

Read

Matthew 3:13–17. What important truths can we learn from

the story of Jesus’ baptism by John?

____________________________________________________________________

The significance of Christ’s baptism cannot be overemphasized.

First, by requesting baptism, Jesus was identifying Himself with sin-

ners. He who was not in need of baptism requested it—not for

Himself but for us, for our benefit, and by so doing He left an exam-

ple for those who want to follow Him. But His baptism was more than

an example; it made it possible for us to be joined to Him through our

baptism and to receive the benefits of His at the hands of John.

Second, as Jesus was coming out of the water, He knelt down and

prayed to the Father (Luke 3:21, 22). The Bible does not record the

content of that prayer, but the answer given by the Father gives us an

idea of its content. By declaring, “ ‘You are my Son, whom I love;

with you I am well pleased’ ” (vs. 22, NIV), God was telling Him that

His prayer was heard. More so, “To every one of us they are words of

hope and mercy. Through faith in the provision God has made in the

behalf of man, you are accepted in the Beloved—accepted through the

merits of Jesus.”—Ellen G. White, Bible Echo and Signs of the Times,

Nov. 12, 1894.

What

great hope can you find for yourself in those words by Ellen

White?

Third, the Godhead was involved and present in the baptism of

Jesus. The Father’s voice was heard from heaven, and the Holy Spirit

made Himself visible through the symbol of a dove. God’s love was

flowing down to His Son as a member of the human race, accepting

Him as its Representative. Humans were no longer separated from the

love of God, because in Christ a channel through which divine love

could reach them was found.

What is the essential message to us from today’s lesson about

how we, though fallen, can have acceptance with God? Is that

acceptance found in ourselves, in how well we perform or keep

the commandments, or in Jesus? Why must we always keep that

answer before us, especially on “bad days”?

WEDNESDAY

November 19

Temptations of Jesus

Summarize

the three temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness

after His baptism. Matt. 4:1–11; Mark 1:12, 13.

The temptations of Jesus reveal some contrasting parallels with

those of Adam and Eve. First, the fact that Adam was tempted while

in the Garden of Eden, in an environment free from the corrupting

reality of sin; Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, in an environment

under the influence of evil powers. Second, Adam had an abundance

of food, while Jesus was deprived of food. Third, Adam was not fast-

ing; Jesus was. Fourth, both Adam and Jesus were tempted to satisfy

their desire for food apart from the will of God; Adam accepted the

food, Jesus didn’t. Fifth, Adam was tempted to question what God had

said and showed a lack of trust in God’s word. Jesus also was tempted

to question the trustworthiness of the word of God, but He rejected the

temptation. Sixth, Adam openly went against the Lord and joined

Satan in his rebellion against God and His government. Jesus was

offered the kingdoms of this world if He would only worship and join

Satan in his struggle against the kingdom of God. Jesus, however,

remained loyal to the Father.

By overcoming Satan on the fundamental points in which Adam

failed, Jesus was undoing Adam’s failure and making His (Christ’s)

victory available to those who will put their faith in Him. The new

humanity will not receive from the Head of the race a spirit of dis-

obedience and rebellion, as the old humanity did from Adam, but one

of humble submission to God’s will.

Read

2 Corinthians 5:21. What does Jesus’ victory over all sin mean

for us and for the process of atonement?

____________________________________________________________________

That deep bond of unity between the Father and the Son was not

broken through the temptations and attacks that Satan launched

against the Son of God. He overcame every one and remained totally

dependent on the Father. No other human being has been, is, or will

be exactly like Him. He was by nature and by personal election sin-

less. It is there that we find the very ground of His capacity to save us.

The Sinless One became sin for us in order for us to receive by faith

the righteousness that was not ours but His. The perfect sacrificial

Lamb took on Himself our sin in order to restore us to unity and har-

mony with the Creator.

THURSDAY

November 20

Ministry of Healing

“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in

their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and

healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matt.

9:35).

Through His healing ministry Jesus was overcoming the incursion

of death in the fabric of suffering humanity. His future victory over the

very kingdom of death was anticipated in His daily healing works. The

power of death that came into the world from sin was being defeated.

This was particularly illustrated in cases of the various resurrections,

including the resurrection of one who had been dead for four days

(Mark 5:35–43, Luke 7:11–17, John 11:38–44).

His miracles also served to break down social barriers. The leper

felt accepted by Him (Mark 1:41), the Samaritan came back to give

thanks (Luke 17:11–17), and the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter

was healed (Mark 7:29, 30). The alienation of humans from each other

created by sin was being broken down through Jesus’ reconciling

ministry. He was creating a new humanity at peace with one another.

But His miracles also served to restore people to harmony and com-

munion with the Father. Very often His victory over the powers of

death led people to believe in Him (John 4:53; 20:30, 31).

Which

other methods did Jesus use in His ministry to restore har-

mony in society and with God? Mark 2:15–17, John 4:39–42.

The gulf of separation between God and humans was bridged not

only in His own person—the human and divine Savior—but also

through the power of Christ’s words of salvation. To those who

received Him, “he gave the right to become children of God” (John

1:12, NIV). These individuals were born not of the will of the flesh but

of God (vs. 13). Jesus Himself was gathering a new humanity recon-

ciled to God, in and through Him. He sought to reconcile humans, not

only with God but also with one another, and He did this by eating

with them in open fellowship. Through these encounters Jesus was

proclaiming that God accepts any person who comes to Him and that

His followers should do likewise.

Take a look at your relationships and ask yourself, In what

daily, practical ways is my reconciliation with God reflected in

the way I treat and accept others?

FRIDAY

November 21

Further Study:

Purpose of the Incarnation: “Christ in counsel

with His Father laid out the plan for His life on earth. . . . He clothed

His divinity with the garb of humanity, that He might stand at the head

of the human family, His humanity mingled with the humanity of the

race fallen because of Adam’s disobedience.”—Ellen G. White, The

Southern W

ork, p. 85.

“Christ’s work was to reconcile man to God through His human

nature, and God to man through His divine nature.”—Ellen G. White,

Confrontation, p. 38.

Prayer at Baptism: “He received baptism at the hands of John, and

in coming up out of the water he bowed upon Jordan’s banks, and

offered up a prayer to Heaven. . . . Jesus was accepted of Heaven as a

representative of the human race. With all our sin and weakness, we

are not cast aside as worthless; we are accepted in the Beloved; for

heaven has been opened to our petitions through the Son of God. The

gates are ajar, and the light of heaven will shine upon all those whom

Jesus came to save, if they will but come within the circle of the

beams of the Sun of Righteousness; for ample provision has been

made for the salvation of every soul.”—Ellen G. White, Signs of the

Times, July 28, 1890.

Discussion Questions:

● Give as many possible answers as you can to this question:

Why was the Incarnation indispensable in Christ’s work of

atonement?

● Why is the humanity of Christ so important to us? Why is the

divinity of Christ so important to us, as well?

● As we saw in Sunday’s lesson, there are many mysteries about

the incarnation of Jesus. What other mysteries are there, such as

in nature, and why should these other mysteries help us under-

stand what it means to live by faith?

● What are ways that we can, as a church, as the body of Christ,

follow Christ’s healing and reconciliation ministry? What does

your local church do? What more can and should it do? Most

important, how can you be more involved?

Summary:

In the incarnation of Jesus we witness the only human

Being who was born on this planet in complete and perfect union with

God. Although tempted by the enemy in ways that no other human

being has been or will be tempted, Jesus remained loyal to the Father

and overcame where Adam failed, thus paving the way to bring salva-

tion to all who surrender to Him in faith and obedience.

tor

INSIDE

The Reluctant Student

by NELIDA ESPINOSA

I had just become an Adventist and wanted to share with my sister what I

had learned. I visited my sister and her children and shared my testimony.

But only my niece, Laura, wanted to know more. We studied the Bible

together in the living room and invited other members of the family to join

us if they wished. But they didn’t respond.

Laura’s brother, Sergio, was devoted to his family’s church and found

excuses not to join us for our Bible studies, so Laura and I prayed earnestly

for the family, and especially Sergio. I knew that God could touch his heart

even when I could not.

I returned home before Laura made a decision for Christ. But every day I

prayed for the members of this family, committing them to God. And when-

ever I could, I visited to encourage them in their faith. During one of my vis-

its I again invited Sergio to join Laura and me for our study, and this time

he did. I asked him to pray for us, and he agreed. I rejoiced to see that God

was working in Sergio’s heart.

When Laura decided to be baptized, I invited her to come to my home

church to be baptized so she could see that the Adventist Church is a large

denomination. She invited Sergio to come with her, and he agreed. Laura

and I knew that God was speaking to him. During the baptismal program the

pastor invited those who would like to give their lives totally to God and pre-

pare for baptism to stand. Sergio stood.

The next day as Sergio and Laura returned home, Sergio told Laura that

he wished to be baptized into the Adventist Church. Laura studied the Bible

with him, and a few months later Sergio was baptized. The next time I vis-

ited, I learned that Sergio was sharing his faith with his classmates and

neighbors—everyone who would listen.

Sergio was taking night classes and faced difficulties with one teacher

who refused to excuse him from class. Sergio knew he couldn’t convince

this teacher, so he explained the Sabbath to the head teacher, who agreed to

help him. He arranged for Sergio to change his exams that fell on Friday

night, and Sergio completed his studies.

Sergio loved playing soccer and was invited to play for a major team in

Argentina. But he knew that God had other plans for his life. He turned

down the lucrative offer that could have paid his way through college and

worked instead to pay his tuition while attending the Adventist seminary to

become a pastor.

Because of Sergio’s and Laura’s commitment to God, other members of

their family have given their lives to Christ. Today Sergio is a pastor leading

others to Christ.

NELIDA ESPINOSA, Sergio Choque’s aunt, lives in Salta, Argentina.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*November 22–28

Metaphors of Salvation

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Rom. 2:1–29, 3:19–26,

2 Cor. 5:18–21, 1 John 4:7–11.

Memory Text:

“God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,

through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice,

because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed before-

hand unpunished” (Romans 3:25, NIV).

Key Thought:

To summarize some of the ways that the New

Testament interprets the death of Christ.

o one image, or one idea, is grand enough to capture the full

meaning of Christ’s death. Some people have argued that

Christ’s death was a ransom paid to liberate us from evil pow-

ers; others claim that it was a sublime revelation of God’s love, one

that transforms us. Some say that it was an expiatory sacrifice and

removes sin as a barrier between us and God; some insist that it was

a reconciling act, others that it was a declaration of acquittal. The

truth is that the death of Christ is all of these, and much more. It’s not

possible to bring the full meaning of Christ’s death under one all-

encompassing concept, although some images are central, such as

sacrificial substitution. This week we’ll look at some of the key

images used to express the wonderful gift we’ve been given through

Jesus’ death on the cross.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 29.

SUNDAY

November 23

Redemption

Read

Mark 10:45; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7; and 1 Peter 1:18,

19. From these texts, how do you understand the concept of

“redemption”?

Redemption is deliverance from debt or slavery through the pay-

ment of a ransom, and it’s an image used in the New Testament to

interpret Christ’s death. In this thinking, the whole world became a

prisoner of sin, and the law was the gatekeeper (Gal. 3:22, 23). As

slaves of sin, humans were heading to eternal death (Rom. 6:6, 23).

The debt could be paid only by relinquishing their own life. Then

Christ came and paid the price for our redemption, making life avail-

able for all who believe in Him. Such persons “used to be slaves to

sin” but have now “been set free from sin and have become slaves to

righteousness” (Rom. 6:17, 18, NIV).

Christ also redeemed us from the “curse of the law” (Gal. 3:13,

NIV). The curse of the law was the claim it made against the life of

those who violated it (vs. 10). The law itself could not save us from its

sentence of death, because it could not give us back life (vs. 21); it

simply provided the legal basis for the death of the culprit. God’s solu-

tion was revealed when He “sent his Son, born of a woman, born

under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full

rights of sons” (Gal. 4:4, 5, NIV).

Christ also “gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness

and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do

what is good” (Titus 2:14, NIV). Redemption, therefore, includes the

process of sanctification, the purification of our lives. This pre-

supposes that on the cross Christ paid our debt and granted us for-

giveness of sin (Eph. 1:7) and gave us the gift of justification (Rom.

3:24). In other words, free from the condemnation of our sin through

the gift Christ bought for us (the forgiveness of our sins), we were jus-

tified by faith in Christ.

God could not ignore sin by pretending that it never existed. He sat-

isfied His own moral demands by paying the ransom Himself. He

bought back the right of existence for the human race and the whole

planet. Whether humans acknowledge it or not, we all belong to God.

Read 1 Corinthians 6:20. What impact should our redemption

through the blood of Christ have on our daily life? What is the

value of a gift if the one who is offered it never accepts it?

MONDAY

November 24

Reconciliation

Read

carefully 2 Corinthians 5:18–21. What does it say about recon-

ciliation?

Reconciliation is the restoration of peaceful relationships between

individuals or groups once at enmity. Usually a mediator or negotia-

tor is needed. This practice was used by Paul to explain the Cross.

First, God took the initiative in reconciling sinners to Himself; in

other words, despite our sin, God still loved us.

Second, God used a Mediator through whom reconciliation was

possible. He “reconciled us to himself through Christ” (2 Cor. 5:18,

NIV); He “was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” (vs. 19,

NIV). This implies an unbridgeable distance between God and

humans, one that required a Mediator.

Third, the object of reconciliation is defined as “us” and the

“world.” God “reconciled us to himself through Christ” (vs. 18, NIV).

The verb is in the past, indicating that the action it expresses is com-

plete. This means that believers enjoy the benefits and fullness of rec-

onciliation right now. Concerning the world, we read that “God was

reconciling the world to himself in Christ” (vs. 19, NIV). The context

indicates that the reconciliation of the world is still in progress; it is

not, as it is with believers, a completed event.

Fourth, reconciliation as a process is formed by two divine actions.

One is the divine act of reconciliation on the cross, defined as “not

counting men’s sins against them” (vs. 19, NIV). Sin was the barrier

that made it impossible for God to reconcile humans to Himself.

Hence, we were by nature objects of His wrath. But He decided to

allow His love to flow freely toward us by removing the barrier of sin.

From the divine perspective, reconciliation is the removal of that bar-

rier. The other aspect of reconciliation is the ministry of reconciliation

(vs. 18, NIV), the proclamation of the message of reconciliation (vs.

19, NIV) entrusted to us. “We are ambassadors for Christ” (vs. 20),

and as such it is God Himself who is “making his appeal through us.

. . . Be reconciled to God” (vs. 20, NIV). It is through this ministry that

reconciliation reaches its ideal goal, which is the end of human ani-

mosity against God.

Is there anyone you need to be reconciled with? If so, how can

understanding the reconciliation wrought by Jesus in your

behalf help you to be reconciled to others?

TUESDAY

November 25

Justification

Justification is, fundamentally, a legal term that refers to the acquit-

tal of someone accused of a crime but who is found innocent in a

court. This concept also was used in the New Testament to explore the

significance of the Cross.

Why

does Paul contrast justification by faith with obedience to the

law, and how does this help us understand justification? (Rom.

3:19–24).

A few points can be noted from these verses: First, the legal image

implies that humans have been charged with a crime. In this particu-

lar case, humans have been found guilty as charged; that is to say, they

are all under the condemnation of the law (Romans 2).

Second, God has provided for humans a way out of their predica-

ment. “Now,” with the coming of Christ, “a righteousness from God,

apart from law,” that is to say, not determined by our obedience to the

law, “has been made known,” or revealed (Rom. 3:21, NIV). Paul

explains that “this righteousness from God comes through faith in

Jesus Christ to all who believe” (vs. 22, NIV). Righteousness desig-

nates here not simply the divine declaration of acquittal but particu-

larly our participation by faith in God’s saving deed in Christ.

Third, this justification is intended for both Jews and Gentiles (vss.

22, 29). God does not make distinctions between peoples: All are sin-

ners, and all are being justified “freely by his grace” (vs. 24, NIV).

Hence, the solution to the human predicament is the justification that

comes by faith to all who believe. This gift of salvation is accompa-

nied by the reception of the Spirit, who enables us to walk in newness

of life (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 3:2, 3).

Fourth, God’s decision is justifiable through Christ’s redemptive

work. We have here the combination of two images, redemption and

justification, that describe and provide a legal basis for God’s decision

to justify those who accept the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 4:3–6).

God can do the unimaginable because Christ took our sin and died in

our place (2 Cor. 5:21).

Read again Romans 3:19–24. Apply the message there to your-

self, personally. What can you take away, right now, for yourself

that can help you realize how you can be right with God?

WEDNESDAY

November 26

Expiatory Sacrifice

Read

Romans 3:25, 26. How does Paul explain what Christ’s sacrifice

did for us?

____________________________________________________________________

The specific use of the word sacrifice (NIV; “propitiation,” KJV) to

designate the death of Christ is not symbolic or metaphorical but

expresses the reality of what happened; Christ sacrificed Himself for

us. The Old Testament sacrifices were mere reflections of this true and

genuine sacrifice, which sits at the core of what God has done for us.

First, this sacrifice was provided by God Himself to restore our rela-

tionship with Him (Rom. 3:25). What we could not do, God did for us

in the person of His Son. Second, this was an act of substitution.

Christ is described as sinless, without any defect; yet, He was offered

as a sin offering (Rom. 8:3, 2 Cor. 5:21). He bore our sin on the tree,

and died for us and in our place (1 Pet. 2:21–24). By taking our sin

upon Himself, He cleansed us from it and brought us back to unity

with God.

Third, Christ’s sacrifice is propitiatory in the sense that it liberated

us from the wrath of God. In Romans Paul introduces the sacrifice of

Christ after establishing that the world was under sin and legally under

the condemnation of God (Romans 1–3). The wrath of God was

already making itself present against the injustices and perversions of

humans (Rom. 1:18). Through the sacrifice of Christ we are liberated

from that wrath, and God’s love reaches us in salvation. Propitiation

does not mean that Christ persuaded the Father to love us; it means

that Christ’s sacrifice made it possible for God’s love to reach us.

Christ experienced God’s wrath against sin so that we don’t have to

experience it ourselves. Consequently, the Cross is not only the place

where God’s love is revealed but also the place where His wrath

against sin was manifested.

Fourth, the sacrifice of Christ expresses, actualizes, and provides

the legal foundation for God’s will to save us. Our redemption and recon-

ciliation would not have been possible without the sacrificial blood of

Christ (Acts 20:28, Col. 1:20, Rev. 5:9). It is because of His death on

the cross as the only and unique sacrificial victim that God is able to

justify those who believe in Christ (Rom. 5:9). By condemning sin in

Christ, God demonstrated that He is righteous when justifying those

who believe in Christ (Rom. 3:26).

THURSDAY

November 27

Display of God’s Love

The engine that configured the plan of salvation and put it into

effect was divine love, the very essence of God (1 John 4:8). Every

aspect of God’s redemptive work is embedded in the divine matrix of

love. God sent the Son to die for us because He loved the world (John

3:16). The Son came to this world to give His life for us because He

loves both the Father (John 14:31) and us (John 13:1). Those who are

united by faith to Christ love God (James 2:5), Jesus (John 14:21),

and one another (1 John 3:11). In fact, the life of obedience to the

commandments of God is our expression of love to Christ for what He

has done for us (1 John 5:3). The whole life and death of Christ was

a magnificent display of God’s character, the most sublime revelation

of love.

What

should be our reaction to the display of God’s love in the death

of Christ? 1 John 4:7–11.

The significance of God’s love, as revealed in the sacrifice of

Christ, is better comprehended when placed in the context of the cos-

mic conflict. Satan’s charges against God cast doubts in the minds of

heavenly beings concerning the nature of God. Was God indeed a lov-

ing, self-sacrificing God, as He claimed to be, or did He have a self-

ish nature hidden under the appearance of self-denial? The cross of

Christ dispelled, forever, all doubts concerning the character of God.

That the Creator willingly chose to become human and suffer and die

on a cross in order to save a race that did not deserve it revealed that

God’s love was beyond the full comprehension of the heavenly intel-

ligences. The unselfish nature of the unfathomable sacrifice is pre-

cisely displayed in the fact that what God did through Christ was done

for the benefit of others, not for His own personal benefit or gain.

The manifestation of God’s love on the cross of Christ served also

to dispel humans’ misconceptions concerning the nature of God. “By

presenting Jesus as the representative of the Father, we shall be able to

dispel the shadow that Satan has cast upon our pathway, in order that

we shall not see the mercy and inexpressible love of God as mani-

fested in Jesus Christ. Look at the cross of Calvary. It is a standing

pledge of the boundless love, the measureless mercy of the heavenly

Father.”—Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 156.

Read again 1 John 4:7–11 and contrast what it says to your own

life and relationships with others. In what ways can you better

manifest the love talked about here? What things are standing

in your way, and how can they be removed?

FRIDAY

November 28

Further Study:

Reconciliation: “Reconciliation means that every

barrier between the soul and God is removed, and that the sinner real-

izes what the pardoning love of God means. By reason of the sacrifice

made by Christ for fallen men, God can justly pardon the transgressor

who accepts the merits of Christ. Christ was the channel through

which the mercy, love, and righteousness might flow from the heart of

God to the heart of the sinner.”—Ellen G. White, Selected Messages,

book 1, p. 396.

Wrath of God: “Christ was to take the wrath of God which in jus-

tice should fall upon man. He became a refuge for man, and although

man was indeed a criminal, deserving the wrath of God, yet he could

by faith in Christ run into the refuge provided and be safe. In the midst

of death there was life if man chose to accept it.”—Ellen G. White,

Review and Herald, February 24, 1874.

Discussion Questions:

● Of the various images talked about this week, which ones can

you relate to the best? Why? In class, talk about the different

images and share with one another the reasons for your choice.

● Dwell on this idea of reconciliation. What can we learn from

human accounts of reconciliation that can help us better under-

stand it as a metaphor for salvation?

● In what ways is the Cross the greatest manifestation and

expression of God’s love? What comfort can we draw from the

Cross about the nature of God that can help sustain us during

hard times?

● God’s wrath against sin just couldn’t be turned off; what

should that tell us about sin’s nature? In other words, why didn’t

God just forget about sin instead of having to pour out His wrath

against it?

Summary:

The Bible employs different images to help us grasp

Christ’s death. Redemption indicates that His death liberates us from

the power of sin. His death restores a peaceful relationship with God;

it reconciles us by overcoming our rebellion. Through the death of

Christ we are declared innocent before the heavenly court because He

died in our place as a substitute. His death on the cross is the place

where God shouts and tells us, “Look, this is how much I love you!”

tor

INSIDE

Conquering the Deceiver

by HEATHER TREDOUX

Justinia stood outside the big tent in Swaziland, listening intently to the

speaker. She wanted to go in and listen, but she was afraid. Someone had

said that these meetings were sponsored by satanists. She needed God’s

help, but her fears held her back.

As she listened, she could find nothing that pointed to Satan. The ser-

mons and even the songs were straight from the Bible. She took a deep

breath, entered the tent, and sat down.

After that Justinia never missed a meeting. How could this be bad? She

wondered as she listened. Bravely she approached the speaker, David

Tembe, and asked him to visit her home. “The spirits of our ancestors are

troubling us,” she told him.

When the pastor visited the family, they told their troubles. “The ances-

tors are angry with us because we don’t have money to hold a feast for

them. We hear strange noises, like a telephone ringing, but we don’t own

a telephone. At night we hear the sound of running footsteps on the metal

roof when no one is there, and lately stones are being hurled at our front

door.”

The family explained that they had consulted a sangoma (witchdoctor),

who declared that the ancestors were angry and told them to slaughter a

goat or an ox to appease the spirits. But the family had no money to buy

one. When the family returned home, they found a small green snake with

black markings near their front door. They knew that this snake meant that

the ancestors had come to visit them. The snake would disappear and reap-

pear, changing color and growing larger. The family was terrified.

The evangelist told the family that God is their only hope. He read the

Bible story of the serpent that deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden

(Genesis 3), and then he explained that God is more powerful than Satan

and has conquered Satan already. They needed only to trust in God.

The family sighed with relief and asked the evangelist to pray for them.

They knelt together and pleaded with God to take control.

During the closing meeting, Justinia shared her testimony. “We have

been troubled and threatened by demons, but when Pastor Tembe prayed,

God sent away the demons, and they have not come back. We lived in

darkness and fear, but now we live in the light of God!”

Our mission offerings help people around the world find the light of

God that shines into their sin-darkened lives. Thank you for doing your

part to make world evangelism possible.

HEATHER TREDOUX is fund-raising for the 4,000 AIDS orphans in the Maluti Adventist

Hospital service area in Lesotho. Swaziland and Lesotho are small countries in southern

Africa.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*November 29–December 5

Atonement at the Cross

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Matt. 26:37, 38; 27:46;

Mark 14:33, 34; Luke 22:40–44; John 19:28–30.

Memory Text:

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of

darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in

whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians

1:13, 14, NIV).

Key Thought:

To describe the experience of Jesus in Gethsemane

and on the cross in order to understand better the meaning of His

atoning death.

man sued a fast-food company, claiming that his obesity, and

the health problems that followed from it, resulted from his

four or five meals a week at the fast-food restaurant. He

blamed the company, not himself, for his problems!

We all tend to be like that, though, blaming others for our misdeeds.

But God does not accept excuses; He considers each one of us

accountable for our sins. However, here’s where the mystery of atone-

ment begins to appear in its beauty. If we assume responsibility for our

sins and have true faith in Jesus, God is willing to forgive us those

sins. When we acknowledge our responsibility, we are liberated from

the penalty of our rebellion. What happened to that penalty? God did

not overlook it. No, instead He allowed it to fall on Jesus, and Christ’s

experience of that punishment will be our theme this week.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 6.

SUNDAY

November 30

Anguish: Heading to Gethsemane

Read

Matthew 26:37, 38; Mark 14:33, 34. What was Jesus experi-

encing here at Gethsemane?

Jesus knew exactly what He would be facing within the next few

hours. The experience was extremely painful and disturbing. At the

moment He reached Gethsemane He could no longer contain His

emotions and began to share them with Peter, James, and John (Matt.

26:37, 38; Mark 14:33, 34). The language He used is very important.

“He began to be deeply distressed and troubled” (Mark 14:33, NIV).

The Greek verb ekthambeo, translated “deeply disturbed,” designates

a highly emotional condition of deep excitement caused by something

perplexing, amazing, or disorienting. It often is accompanied by fear,

even terror and trembling. Matthew uses the verb lupeo, translated

“overwhelmed by sorrow,” to designate a high level of emotional dis-

tress, sadness, and anxiety (Matt. 26:38). The second verb in Mark

14:33, troubled (Greek ademoneo), expresses more clearly anxiety,

distress, and horror. The emotional and physical condition of Jesus

was reaching new and unknown depths of discomfort and upheaval.

The peace that characterized Him appeared to be waning; fear, trem-

bling, and anxiety were taking over instead. Notice that Mark says that

Jesus “began” to feel that way as He got to Gethsemane. This emo-

tional turmoil was going to get worse.

Also, although no specific reason is given for the physical and emo-

tional state of Jesus, through the light of the New Testament we can

conclude that this is the result of bearing the world’s sin, not from fear

of what humans would do to Him.

“ ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’ ”

(Mark 14:34, NIV). This is the way Jesus Himself described His con-

dition to the disciples. “My soul” could be interpreted as an emphatic

expression, “I, myself,” or as designating the all-inclusive nature of

His experience. The expression “overwhelmed with sorrow” is the

translation of the Greek word perilupos, which usually designates a

sorrow or affliction measureless in intensity and depth. In this particu-

lar case the intensity of the sorrow was bringing Jesus to the borders

of the second death. He was already starting to suffer the fate that

should have been ours.

Look at the sufferings of Jesus here and realize that this should

have been you, not Him. How does this make you feel? How

should those feelings be translated into a changed life?

MONDAY

December 1

The Cup: Willing Submission

Read

Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:39–42; Mark 14:35, 36;

Luke 22:40–44). What is the essence of the prayer? What major

element stands out regarding Jesus’ attitude concerning what He

was about to face?

____________________________________________________________________

While in the Garden, Jesus used the metaphor of the cup to help us

understand His inner feelings. The cup is used in the Bible to designate

blessings received from the Lord (Pss. 16:5, 23:5) or the salvation He

offers us (Ps. 116:13). But more often it refers to God’s judgment against

sin and sinners (Ps. 75:8). This cup contains the wine of His anger

against His enemies, His judicial wrath (Jer. 25:15, 16). It is to this cup

that Jesus was referring when He asked the Father to let it be taken away

from Him, if possible (Matt. 26:39, Mark 14:36). He was experiencing

loneliness—the abandonment of the disciples and particularly the aban-

donment of God. He sought the company and support of the disciples but

didn’t get it. And now, all by Himself, He asked the Father not to forsake

Him. The answer that came back to Him from within the darkness of the

divine silence was, “There is no other way to save the human race.” Jesus

voluntarily acquiesced to the will of the Father.

When

the mob came to take Him, Peter tried to protect Him. How do

Jesus’ words to Peter (John 18:11) help us better understand

Christ’s willingness to suffer for us?

____________________________________________________________________

Jesus came to this planet to die: “ ‘The Son of Man did not come to be

served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ ” (Mark

10:45, NIV). God by definition cannot die, but in order for Him to accept

our sin and its penalty He became a human, a creature, and creatures do

not have life in themselves; they can die. In Gethsemane Jesus was ready

to die, to surrender His life for undeserving sinners everywhere.

When was the last time you purposefully allow

ed yourself to

endure great suffering, purely on behalf of another person and

with no personal gain for yourself? What can you learn about

yourself from your answer? And what can you learn about Jesus

from your answer too?

TUESDAY

December 2

Darkness: Handed Over to the Enemy

In Gethsemane, and now in the events leading to the Cross, Jesus

faced as never before the forces of evil. The struggle against satanic

powers was to reach indescribable dimensions, testing the Savior to

the very core of His being.

Among the indignities, He was being “ ‘betrayed into the hands of

sinners’ ” (Matt. 26:45, NIV). The verb betrayed (Greek paradidomi,

“to hand over”) is used several times to describe what would happen

to Jesus. Here the context suggests that Judas is the one who betrays

Him, but behind the wicked and voluntary decision of Judas the divine

plan was being mysteriously fulfilled. It was God who “delivered

[Christ] over to death for our sins” (Rom. 4:25, NIV). But Christ also

gave Himself up for us, as seen in Galatians 2:20 and Ephesians 5:2—

clear references to His sacrificial death on the cross.

According to Matthew 26:45, 46, Jesus was handed over into the

hands of sinners. The verb expresses the idea of a transfer of a pos-

session from one to another. Indeed, already “the light of God was

receding from His vision, and He was passing into the hands of the

powers of darkness.”—Ellen G. White, Bible Echo and Signs of the

Times, August 1, 1892. Now He was going to be delivered totally into

the hands of sinners; that is, into the hands of evil powers. For Him

this was the hour “ ‘when darkness reigns’ ” (Luke 22:53, NIV), when

He was to experience total separation from the Father’s love. Christ

was going into the kingdom of darkness by Himself; and yet, it was

there, in that kingdom, that He would defeat evil once and for all. As

the incarnate God in human flesh, He overcame the kingdom of Satan.

How

does Jesus describe His victory over the power of darkness?

Luke 11:20–22.

Luke says that Jesus was facing the hour of the dominion of dark-

ness (Luke 22:53), and Paul adds that God “has rescued us from the

dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he

loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col.

1:13, 14, NIV). Christ went into the realm of darkness and experi-

enced what we should have experienced, and He did it in order to

deliver us from the power of Satan (Acts 26:18). While there He “dis-

armed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,

triumphing over them by the cross” (Col. 2:15, NIV).

How should our knowledge of Christ’

s victory over these evil

forces encourage us in our daily struggles amid the great con-

troversy? What does His victory mean for us? How can we avail

ourselves of that victory in our lives?

WEDNESDAY

December 3

The Cry: Exploring the Mystery

On the cross, Jesus was suffering intensely. But so was the Father.

God was in Christ, consequently, “the omnipotent God suffered with

His Son.”—Ellen G. White, The Upward Look, p. 223. One could

even say that “God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was

one with the Father.”—Ellen G. White in Signs of the Times, March

26, 1894. What was the nature of the suffering experienced by the

Godhead that caused Christ to ask, “ ‘My God, my God, why have you

forsaken me?’ ” (Matt. 27:46, NIV).

How

do you understand Jesus’ cry in that verse?

On the cross God experienced something He had never before expe-

rienced: The penalty for sin. “It was necessary for the awful darkness

to gather about His soul because of the withdrawal of the Father’s love

and favor; for He was standing in the sinner’s place. . . . The righteous

One must suffer the condemnation and wrath of God, not in vindic-

tiveness; for the heart of God yearned with greatest sorrow when His

Son, the guiltless, was suffering the penalty of sin. This sundering of

the divine powers will never again occur throughout the eternal

ages.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary,

vol. 7, p. 924.

This statement indicates, first, that the Father withdrew His love

from the Son not because He did not love Him but because Jesus was

dying in our place. There was no one available to mediate God’s love

to His Son! Second, there was no vindictiveness in the heart of the

Father as His Son was dying for the sins of the world. He did not

rejoice in the death of the Son but was suffering with Him. Third, the

real penalty God paid for our sins was “the sundering of the divine

powers.” Ellen White is taking us inside the mystery of the relation-

ships between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, describing for us what

the Godhead underwent as Jesus was on the cross. The verb to sunder

means “to break or force apart.” That which should have remained

united was torn apart.

In short, through Christ’s sacrifice the Godhead was accepting

responsibility for the world’s sins and, more so, the Godhead was suf-

fering the consequences of these sins. Could it be that the Godhead,

who cannot die, felt in a unique way—through the temporary sunder-

ing of the divine powers—the full intensity of the eternal death of the

fallen race, through the temporal exclusion of the Son from the unity

of the Godhead? The plan of salvation, the atonement, pulled the

Trinity apart but momentarily. This experience of extreme “pain”

within the Godhead took place only once and will never occur again.

That’s what our salvation cost.

THURSDAY

December 4

It Is Finished: From Death to Life

Describe

Jesus’ last experiences just before He died (John

19:28–30). What did Jesus mean when He said that “it is fin-

ished”? What was finished?

Though the enemy, Satan, in conjunction with some of the leaders,

had orchestrated Christ’s death, at the crucial moment Jesus voluntar-

ily surrendered His life to the Father: “He bowed his head and gave up

his spirit” (John 19:30, NIV). The language suggests that He went to

sleep, trusting in the goodness, benevolence, and love of the Father.

He had said to the disciples, “ ‘I lay down my life—only to take it up

again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord’ ”

(John 10:17, 18, NIV). Now when the proper moment arrived, He did

just that.

“It is finished” meant that the perfect atoning sacrifice had once and

for all been offered and that heaven and earth had been reconnected

through it. The plan of salvation, kept secret for ages, was now fully

revealed to the universe in the obedient death of the Son of God on the

cross. God had provided the sacrifice, and now its atoning power was

available to every human being who will look to the Cross as the

exclusive way of salvation. Consequently, the sacrificial system of the

Old Testament ended. At the moment Jesus died, the veil of the tem-

ple was torn apart, from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51, Mark 15:38),

indicating that the presence of God and His accessibility to us was

now located in the sacrifice and person of His beloved Son.

“It is finished” was a triumphal shout. He came to defeat Satan, and

He accomplished this in the weakness of human flesh and in the midst

of a mortal confrontation (Heb. 2:14). The ultimate destruction of

Satan and his angels was fixed at the Cross.

This victory was revealed and sealed through His resurrection,

when the forces of evil were unable to retain the Son of God inside the

tomb. That glorious Sunday morning the words of Jesus were ful-

filled: “ ‘I have authority to lay it [my life] down and authority to take

it up again. This command I received from my Father’ ” (John 10:18,

NIV). Jesus is “ ‘the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for

ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades’ ” (Rev. 1:18,

NIV).

What hope does the fact that Christ finished His work at the

Cross offer us? What does that tell us about resting in Him and

His works for us? How should this reality be expressed in our

lives and behavior?

FRIDAY

December 5

Further Study:

“Man has not been made a sin-bearer, and he will

never know the horror of the curse of sin which the Saviour bore. No

sorrow can bear any comparison with the sorrow of Him upon whom

the wrath of God fell with overwhelming force. Human nature can

endure but a limited amount of test and trial. The finite can only

endure the finite measure, and human nature succumbs; but the nature

of Christ had a greater capacity for suffering; for the human existed in

the divine nature, and created a capacity for suffering to endure that

which resulted from the sins of a lost world. The agony which Christ

endured, broadens, deepens, and gives a more extended conception of

the character of sin, and the character of the retribution which God

will bring upon those who continue in sin. The wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ to the repent-

ing, believing sinner.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible

Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1103.

Discussion Questions:

● Read carefully the Ellen G. White quote above. In essence she

is saying that nothing any one of us, as finite creatures, has ever

suffered could match the suffering of the Son of God on the

cross. What does that tell us about what sin cost God? How does

this idea, of Christ’s suffering being worse than anything we

could face, help us understand how suffering could exist in a

world created by a loving God? What comfort can you draw, if

any, from knowing that God has suffered worse from sin than any

of us ever had or ever could?

● Dwell on Wednesday’s lesson, the idea of the temporal sun-

dering of the Godhead. What can you take from that which can

help you understand the depth of the atonement? How was that

experience in the Godhead “the penalty” for our sin? Discuss

your answer in class on Sabbath.

● What does it mean to give of yourself unselfishly for others?

What examples from everyday life can you find of this principle

in operation? How can we, both as individuals and as a church,

better manifest such unselfish giving?

Summary:

On the cross, Jesus experienced the fullness of the sinner’s

eternal separation from God. God Himself was in Christ paying the

penalty for sin, atoning for our sins.

tor

INSIDE

Advertising Misprint Brings

Two to Church

by PHIL WARD

A misprinted ad in an Australian newspaper had a surprising result.

Pastor Laurie McMurtry advertised his “Focus on Prophecy” seminar in

three local newspapers. But one newspaper mistakenly printed the starting

date as Monday night rather than Tuesday.

When Pastor McMurtry realized the error, he wondered what to do. He

had a lot of preparation to do for the seminars, and he could hardly afford

to spend the evening at the church. But what if someone came to the

church on Monday evening for the seminar?

The pastor felt convicted to go to the church on Monday night. He

packed his projector, his computer, and the seminar materials and drove to

the distant Adventist church where the meetings were to be held.

When he arrived, the parking lot was empty. He waited some time, and

still no one came. Then, as he was about to leave, a car drove into the park-

ing lot. The pastor greeted the couple and explained the situation to them.

“The seminar is actually tomorrow night,” he said.

“What a pity,” the couple replied. “We can’t come tomorrow night.”

“Then come inside, and I’ll hold the seminar just for you!” Pastor

McMurtry said. He set up his equipment and presented the seminar topic

to John and Pat Paynter. When the pastor gave the Paynters the printed

material for the second week’s seminar, they told him that they couldn’t

come on Tuesday nights. Pastor McMurtry offered to hold a seminar just

for them on Wednesday mornings.

The Paynters, members of another church, were delighted with the

strong emphasis on the Bible. They began attending the Adventist church

two months later and are now actively

involved.

“I’m sure that the Lord had a hand in that

newspaper misprint,” says Pastor McMurtry,

who never told the newspaper about the mis-

take.

JOHN and PAT PAYNTER (left) attend the Ballina Adventist

Church in Australia. PHIL WARD is the author of The

Bible as Poetry; he edits an e

vangelism newsletter for

the Australian Union.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*December 6–12

Benefits of Christ’s Atoning

Sacrifice

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Rom. 8:34–39; 1 Cor. 15:16–18;

Eph. 1:3; Col. 1:16, 17; Heb. 7:25; 1 Pet. 3:21, 22; 1 John 1:9.

Memory Text:

“Therefore he is able to save completely those who

come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for

them” (Hebrews 7:25, NIV).

Key Thought:

To examine the priestly work of Christ in the heav-

enly sanctuary in order to show that it is part of His work of sal-

vation in our behalf.

he finality of the Cross is not threatened by the indispensable

work of mediation of Christ for us in the heavenly temple.

Without Him the infinite richness of grace would not be at our

disposal as a gift from God. Believers receive the fullness of the

redemptive power of the Cross through the mediation of Christ. All

the benefits of the Cross are at our disposal through faith in His aton-

ing sacrifice.

“ ‘Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth’ ” (Isa. 45:22,

NIV). That’s the message of Christ’s death on the cross. And that

redemptive efficacy is available to us through Christ’s work of

mediation. This week we’ll examine the wonderful benefits of Christ’s

high-priestly ministry in order to better understand God’s saving

grace.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 13.

SUNDAY

December 7

Resurrection and Ascension

The doctrinal significance of the bodily resurrection of Christ is of

utmost importance, because without it there is no forgiveness of sin,

no salvation, and no hope of eternal life.

Read

1 Corinthians 15:16–18. How closely does Paul link atonement

with the resurrection of Jesus?

____________________________________________________________________

The death of Christ would not have had any atoning or forgiving

power had it not been followed by the resurrection of the Lord.

Consequently, we should not restrict the atoning work of Christ to a

single event within God’s plan of salvation. The Cross and the Resur-

rection are two parts of one inseparable work of redemption.

How

would you explain the close connection between the Resurrection,

the Ascension, and Christ’s work of intercession? 1 Pet. 3:21, 22;

Rom. 8:34–39.

____________________________________________________________________

Jesus took to heaven our glorified human nature, thus opening the

portals of heaven to the human race. His resurrection and ascension

mean, first, that He finished the work He came to do on earth (John

17:4, 5; 19:30). Second, through His resurrection and ascension,

Christ permanently united to God those who will put their faith in His

sacrificial death. No power in the universe could separate them from

God. Since Christ removed the barrier of sin, God’s love constantly

and eternally will flow to His people. Third, the ascension of Christ

also testifies that His defeat of evil powers on the cross was final.

After His ascension, He was enthroned as co-Regent with God, sitting

at His right hand, “with angels, authorities and powers in submission

to him” (1 Pet. 3:22, NIV; see also Heb. 10:12, 13). He will remain

with the Father until His enemies are subjected to Him. Then He will

return to save those who are waiting for Him (Heb. 9:28), thus con-

summating His work of salvation (Phil. 2:10, 11; Rev. 17:14).

What hope does Christ’s resurrection from the dead offer you?

That is,

in what ways does His resurrection guarantee that

death does not have to be your final end? If it is, who can you

blame but yourself? Why not make the choices now that can

spare you from the biggest mistake you could ever make?

MONDAY

December 8

Mediation of Christ and Atonement

What

is the relationship between the atoning sacrifice of Christ on

the cross and His mediation in the heavenly sanctuary? Heb. 7:25;

1 John 1:9; 2:1, 2; 4:10.

The death and resurrection of Christ make possible the mediation of

Christ before the Father. Christ’s mediation means that human sin and

guilt are not irrelevant before the Lord in heaven. It’s only through

Christ’s work for us that we receive the benefits of His sacrificial

death. Guilt and sin continue to be part of the human experience in the

sight of God. That makes the role of our Mediator before the Father an

indispensable element in the plan of salvation.

In the Bible the mediation of Christ before the Father is never sepa-

rated from His atoning sacrifice. The sacrifice was offered on behalf

of the human race, but its forgiving power continues to be effective in

behalf of those who, in response to the invitation of the Spirit, repent

and are converted. Forgiveness is mediated from God to us through

Christ (Eph. 4:32). But it is also through Christ that repentance

reaches the human heart (Acts 5:31). It also is effective for the for-

giveness of sins committed by believers after conversion, because

even after conversion sin can beset us. In such cases, John says we

have an advocate who can represent us before God and through whom

we can be forgiven (1 John 2:1, 2).

It is perhaps for that reason that Hebrews 2:17 uses the verb to make

atonement (NIV) in the present tense, suggesting that Christ’s work of

reconciliation continues in His high-priestly ministry. This means that

although on the cross Christ obtained salvation for all, through His

work as Mediator in the heavenly sanctuary He is applying the bene-

fits of the Cross to those who believe in Him. Without the mediation

of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, the atoning effectiveness and

power of the Cross would not be available to sinners. His mediation is

rooted in the Cross. This mediation is not a supplement to Calvary but

is in fact the unfolding of the meaning and significance of God’s for-

giving power, an unveiling of the depth and permanent atoning power

of His sacrificial death.

Have you sinned, even after you’ve accepted Jesus as your

Savior? If so, what comfort do you get from knowing that Christ

is mediating God’s forgiveness on your behalf in heaven? Why is

that knowledge so important for us to have?

TUESDAY

December 9

Mediation of Christ in the Heavenly

Sanctuary

What

do the following texts tell us about what Christ is doing for us

as our Mediator in heaven? John 16:23, 24; Acts 5:31; Eph. 1:3;

2:18; Heb. 1:2; 4:16; 13:20, 21.

If the death of Christ could not be separated from His resurrection,

neither should we separate His enthronement and mediation after the

Resurrection. The forward-looking purpose of the Resurrection was

His installation as our High Priest. Jesus finished His sacrificial work

on the cross and is now working as King and Priest in the heavenly

sanctuary. The movement from humiliation to exaltation indicates a

further development of His work as Redeemer. This does not affect the

finality of His atoning sacrificial death (Heb. 10:12) but, rather, reveals

more benefits from it.

Christ began His intercessory work immediately after His enthrone-

ment, and this event had a direct impact on the church. As a result of

that work of mediation, “Christ’s toiling, struggling ones on earth [His

disciples] are ‘accepted in the Beloved.’ Eph. 1:6. Before the heavenly

angels and the representatives of unfallen worlds, they are declared

justified.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 834. This objective

justification of Christ’s followers in heaven was immediately accom-

panied by the outpouring of the Spirit. Jesus promised the disciples

that He will request from the Father another Counselor (John 14:16,

17), and at Pentecost Peter interpreted the outpouring of the Holy

Spirit as indicating that Christ had begun His intercessory work on

behalf of those who believed in Christ (Acts 2:33).

The good news is that Jesus is still working on behalf of His peo-

ple. Peter stated that Christ must remain in heaven “until the times of

restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all

his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). There are

prophecies that still need to be fulfilled, and then Christ’s work before

the Father will end. The ultimate restoration is still in the future, and

Christ’s intercessory work is leading toward it. We are still living

within salvation history, between His ascension and His return. The

time between those two events is filled by His mediation and the ful-

fillment of the mission of the church.

Read Revelation 8:2–5. What is the meaning of the imagery

there? More important, what hope do those verses, a reference

to Christ as our heavenly Mediator, offer you, who at times

might feel that God cannot accept your prayers?

WEDNESDAY

December 10

Mediation of Christ and the

Preservation of Life

How

does the mediation of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary impact

the natural world? John 3:35; Col. 1:16, 17; Heb. 1:3.

Earth probably would be as desolate as Mars if not for the Cross of

Christ and for Christ’s mediation before the Father. As indicated

already, sin had a negative effect on the natural world; it became an

expression of the rebellious nature of sin. And yet, God did not aban-

don the natural world. The psalmist says, “The Lord is good to all; he

has compassion on all he has made” (Ps. 145:9, NIV). The way the

Lord provides for the sustenance of the earth is interpreted to be a reve-

lation of God’s love.

If there is a particular element of God’s creation that sin threatens

in a direct way, it is the mysterious phenomenon of life on our planet.

Out of His love, God decided to preserve the life He created in spite

of its contamination with sin. Paul says, “ ‘ “For in him we live and

move and have our being” ’ ” (Acts 17:28, NIV). The preservation of

our lives is not the result of mechanical laws working independently

of God: “The physical organism of man is under the supervision of

God, but it is not like a clock, which is set in operation, and must go

of itself. The heart beats, pulse succeeds pulse, breath succeeds

breath, but the entire being is under the supervision of God. . . . Each

heartbeat, each breath, is the inspiration of Him who breathed into the

nostrils of Adam the breath of life—the inspiration of the ever-present

God, the great I AM.”—Ellen G. White, Medical Ministry, p. 9.

Although sinners deserve death, their natural life is preserved through

God’s grace, all made possible only through the Cross. Paul and

Barnabas said to some pagans, “ ‘He [God] has shown kindness by

giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides

you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy’ ” (Acts 14:17,

NIV). He “makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cul-

tivate—bringing forth food from the earth” (Ps. 104:14, NIV). All of

this is totally undeserved by His creatures and is an expression of

God’s loving grace through Christ (Matt. 5:45, Luke 6:35). God’s

kindness is not limited to those who serve Him; it reaches out to every

human being.

Think about the implications of today’s lesson: Everyone owes

his or her existence to Christ’s grace. How should this fact influ-

ence how you deal with other people? How does this fact help us

understand the value of all human life?

THURSDAY

December 11

Mediation of Christ and the Work of

the Spirit

In order to understand better the dynamic nature of grace, theolo-

gians usually talk about common grace and sanctifying grace. From

the Adventist perspective, common grace is the kind disposition of

God manifested toward sinners in the preservation of life on the planet

and in the work of the Spirit in the human heart calling us to repen-

tance, confession, and conversion. Sanctifying grace is usually under-

stood as the work of the Spirit in the heart of the person who accepted

Christ as Savior. The death of Christ on the cross released an atmos-

phere of grace that surrounds the planet: “In the matchless gift of His

Son, God has encircled the whole world with an atmosphere of grace

as real as the air which circulates around the globe. All who choose to

breathe this life-giving atmosphere will live and grow up to the stature

of men and women in Christ Jesus.”—Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ,

p. 68. This is common grace, available to all who choose to accept it

for themselves.

What

did Christ promise the disciples, and what was the function of

that gift? John 14:16, 17; 16:8–11; Rom. 8:9–14.

Jesus said to the disciples that after His departure He was going to

send them the Spirit and that the Spirit would “reprove the world of

sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). This is com-

mon grace. It is the task of the Spirit to make sinful human beings

fully aware of their sin, guilt, and separation from God. At the same

time, He points them to the Cross of Christ as the only way out of their

desperate condition. Without this work of the Spirit, the Cross

becomes ineffective in itself. But it is precisely because of the Cross

that the Spirit is active in the world, constantly pointing sinners to

Jesus for their salvation.

Grace is not irresistible; that is, humans can reject it, and many do.

Grace would hardly be grace (would it?) if it were forced upon peo-

ple. The Lord respects the freedom of His creatures; nothing proves

that better than the Cross.

In what ways do you find yourself resisting the prompting of the

Spirit? Why do we do that? Why is this resistance, even in “lit-

tle” things, so dangerous? Most important, how can we learn

day by day to surrender ourselves to the promptings that come

from on high?

FRIDAY

December 12

Further Study:

“The Saviour presents the virtue of His mediation

before the Father, and pledges Himself to the office of personal

Intercessor. By proclaiming Himself as our Intercessor, He desires us

to know that He places in the golden censer His merits and efficiency,

that He may offer them with the sincere prayers of His people. How

essential, then, that we pray much; for as our prayers ascend to the

throne of God, they are mingled with the fragrance of Christ’s righ-

teousness. Our voice is not the only voice heard. Before it reaches the

ear of God, it blends with the voice of Christ, whom the Father always

hears.”—Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 7, p. 166.

“But so long as Jesus remains man’s intercessor in the sanctuary

above, the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is felt by rulers and

people. It still controls to some extent the laws of the land. Were it not

for these laws, the condition of the world would be much worse than

it now is. While many of our rulers are active agents of Satan, God

also has His agents among the leading men of the nation. The enemy

moves upon his servants to propose measures that would greatly

impede the work of God; but statesmen who fear the Lord are influ-

enced by holy angels to oppose such propositions with unanswerable

arguments.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 610.

Discussion Questions:

● If God loves us and sent His Son to die for us, why is it neces-

sary for Jesus to function still as a Mediator before the Father?

● Review the book of Hebrews. What does it tell us about the

reality, and importance, of Christ’s mediation in our behalf in

heaven?

● How does the reality of Christ’s ministration in heaven answer

the question, What has Jesus been doing all these years since His

resurrection?

Summary:

After His resurrection and ascension, Christ continues His

saving work through His mediation in the heavenly sanctuary. From

there He mediates material blessings to human beings and preserves

life on the planet. As our Mediator, He applies the full benefits of His

atonement on the cross to those who respond to the invitation of the

Spirit to find in Him their Savior.

tor

INSIDE

Flower Blooms in the Desert

by CHARLOTTE ISHKANIAN

Jasmine* grew up in Europe, but her family moved to her father’s coun-

try in the Middle East when she was ten. She knew little Arabic and wasn’t

interested in learning, so she never mastered the language. By the time she

was ready to enroll in high school, her Arabic was still so poor that she

couldn’t study in a government school. She would have to study in an

English-medium school, and the only English school that offered boarding

was the Adventist school. So her parents enrolled her.

“From the moment I stepped onto the campus, I loved this school!”

Jasmine said. “Everyone was so friendly, I felt at home.

“I didn’t know much about God, but I wanted to fit in. So I went to wor-

ship and Sabbath services, even though I was excused because of my fam-

ily’s religion. I love singing, and the Christian songs spoke to me. But I didn’t

listen to the sermons. However, God got my attention in other ways.

“The words, ‘God is love,’ were painted in the chapel. But in my mind

God was vengeful and would punish me if I didn’t follow Him. I wanted to

know more about this Jesus. Who is He? Why is He different from the other

prophets? I decided to attend the religion classes to find answers to my

questions. There was so much I didn’t understand. Sometimes at night I

woke my roommates up to ask questions that swirled in my head.

“I went to every church service on campus, to Bible studies on Sabbath

afternoon, and I even stopped people in the halls to ask them questions. I

just had to know!

“But when I went home, my father suspected my interest in Christianity

and told me I couldn’t take Bible class anymore. I cried, but I obeyed, but

I still attended church and sang in the choir, and I went to the Sabbath Bible

studies. But my thirst for truth sent me back to Bible class.

“The principal told me that I could get into serious trouble for being

there, but I told him I wasn’t attending the class; I was just using the room

for a study hall—during Bible class! I pretended to study, but I listened.

“I am still learning, but I know that I want to follow Jesus all the way.

My mother knows that I want to be a Christian, and she’s OK with that. She

wants to learn more about Jesus too.

“Last year I should have graduated, but I failed one of my classes. What

a blessing! Another whole year to study the Bible and learn more about

Jesus! I can’t be baptized in this country, but one day I will stand for Christ

in the baptismal waters. I can’t wait!

“Thank you so much for your mission offerings that support the

Adventist school where I learned about Jesus.”

JASMINE (not her real name) lives in a country that is unfriendly to evangelism. CHARLOTTE

ISHKANIAN is editor of Mission.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*December 13–19

United to Christ

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Rom. 5:19, 6:3–6, 8:9,

2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 4:5–7, 6:15, Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:10.

Memory Text:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new cre-

ation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17,

NIV).

Key Thought:

To demonstrate that Christ’s work of reconcilia-

tion continues as He calls us to become members of the new

humanity instituted by Him in His own person.

he sacrifice of Christ provides all that we need for salvation.

This includes the possibility of union and permanent attach-

ment to Him as Savior and Lord. This incorporation into Christ,

through the ritual of baptism, is our participation in His death and resur-

rection; it’s our recognition that His death is our death because He

died as our Substitute. Thus, we become united to Him. In this unity,

we not only appropriate all the infinite benefits of His sacrifice but

also become members of the new humanity instituted by Him in His

own person. This union with Christ is, through the work of the Spirit,

embodied in our incorporation into the church as the body of Christ.

Thus, to be incorporated into Christ is to have a personal communion

with Him and to be united to one another in the mystery of His church.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 20.

SUNDAY

December 14

The Two Humanities

Study

the parallels and contrasts below and summarize the nature of

the humanity made sinful by Adam and the new humanity made

by Christ:

The fall of Adam resulted in his spiritual death and separation from

God. All of his descendants found themselves in the same situation as

Adam, unable to overcome sin and death. Humans are, by natural

birth, part of the humanity that belongs to Adam, a sinful humanity

separated from God.

How then does one become part of the new humanity instituted by

God through Christ? There’s only one way, and that is through the new

birth. The new humanity is formed by those who were born from

above and not from the flesh (John 3:3, 5, 6). These are those who saw

in Christ God’s only means of salvation, believed in Him, and now

have eternal life (vs. 15). They now belong to the new creation, liber-

ated from the enslaving power of sin (2 Cor. 5:17). They have become

children of God, members of the heavenly family. Paul describes this

as adoption into God’s family (Gal. 4:5–7). Jesus was pronounced Son

of God at His baptism, and we participate in His Sonship through

adoption at baptism. Adoption does not suggest that we are less than

children; on the contrary, “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our

spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16).

How should our lives in this new humanity differ from how they

were in the old one? What tangible differences can you find?

What does your answer tell you about yourself?

ADAM CHRIST

1. Son of God

(Luke 3:22)

2. Was obedient

(Rom. 5:19)

3. Brought grace for all

(Rom. 5:20–22)

4. Made possible the reign of life

(Rom. 5:17)

5. Through Him many will be made

righteous (Rom. 5:19)

6. Brought justification

(Rom. 5:18)

7. In Him all will be made alive

(1 Cor. 15:21)

1. Son of God

(Luke 3:38)

2. Was disobedient

(Rom. 5:19)

3. Introduced sin

(Rom. 5:12)

4. Introduced reign of death

(Rom. 5:17)

5. All his descendants ar

e sinners

(Rom. 5:19)

6. Brought condemnation

(Rom. 5:18)

7. In him all die

(1 Cor. 15:21)

MONDAY

December 15

Making All Things New: A New

Humanity

The ultimate goal of Christ’s work of salvation is to make all things

new, thus permanently undoing the damage caused by sin. This hope

for the “new” was announced by the prophets of the Old Testament,

particularly by Isaiah, who talked about the creation of a new heaven

and a new earth (Isa. 65:17). The Old Testament concept of newness

is developed more fully in the New Testament, now from the perspec-

tive of the work of redemption through Jesus. Consequently, the

“new” is not only what we anticipate through our hope in Christ but

also what we are already experiencing now, as Christians. For

instance, we have already entered into a new covenant with Christ

(Mark 14:24); we are already walking in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).

The new is here because Christ initiated it through the power of His

death and resurrection.

The work of redemption is essentially one of re-creation, one so

radical that it will result in a new heaven and a new earth. Yet, this

work of re-creation does not begin with the new literal heaven and

earth, or even with the re-creation of our old physical bodies. It begins

with the creation of a new humanity. We must remember that the prob-

lem of sin is primarily and directly related to the fall of humans. The

resolution of the problem begins with the eradication of its controlling

power in the human heart. This has been possible through the work of

Christ for us. This new humanity was initiated by Christ, in whom the

divine and the human were permanently united. The new humanity is,

therefore, the participation of humans in the humanity inaugurated by

Christ.

This new humanity is not an invisible abstract phenomenon that

lacks a concrete expression in history. It expresses itself in the church

as the body of Christ. This new humanity is determined not by ethnic

or social differences but only by the power of Christ to make us one

in Him. Paul states that through Christ God brought together into the

church Jews and Gentiles, and that it is His purpose “to create in

[Christ] himself one new man out of the two” (Eph. 2:15, NIV). This

new “man” or humanity is created in Christ in the sense that it partici-

pates in the unity with God made possible through Christ.

Read Galatians 6:15, Ephesians 4:24, and Colossians 3:10.

What do these verses mean to you? How have you experienced

the promises in them? What can you do to help see these prom-

ises brought to fruition in your own life?

TUESDAY

December 16

Union With Christ

How

does Paul describe the incorporation of humans into Christ?

Rom. 6:3–6, 2 Cor. 5:17.

No one is automatically in Christ apart from a personal faith com-

mitment to Him. Our incorporation by faith into Christ expresses

itself in baptism. The importance of this rite is vast.

First, it is a public declaration that the death of Christ was our death

and that through His resurrection we are part of a new creation, a new

humanity. Second, we did not die “in Christ,” but we were “baptized

into his death.” Through baptism we joined Him in His sacrificial

death, thus establishing a permanent relationship with Him. Third, the

phrase “baptized into Christ” is interpreted by Paul to mean that we

died “with Christ” (Rom. 6:3, 8, NIV) and that we were made alive

“with Christ” (Col. 2:13, NIV). This is participatory language, indi-

cating that our death to sin and our new life take place only and exclu-

sively in union with Christ and never apart from Him.

In other words, the full benefits of Christ’s death are appropriated

by us only when we by faith join Him in His death and resurrection.

Dying with Him means recognizing Him as our Savior. To recognize

Him as Savior means that we see in Him the Son of God dying on the

cross for our sins and rebellion and that we experience repentance,

baptism, and the forgiveness of sin (Acts 2:38). True conversion

requires more than recognizing and accepting biblical truth. It calls for

an acknowledgment of our true condition as sinners in order to help

us realize that, separated from Christ, we are destined to a life of total

slavery to sin and death and that our desperate condition can be radi-

cally changed only by coming to Jesus. This happens as we are united

to Christ’s death.

Finally, our incorporation in the resurrection of Christ means that

He has become our only Lord. Our participation in the power of His

resurrection indicates that sin no longer rules over us. Paul asked, “We

died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom. 6:2, NIV). For

him it is inconceivable that Christians will be controlled by the power

of sin. Yet, he is aware of the fact that sin, though dethroned in our

lives, is still attempting to rule over us again. Hence he writes,

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey

its evil desires” (Rom. 6:12, NIV). This is possible through the power

of the Holy Spirit received at our baptism. Our participation by faith

in His death and resurrection are inseparable and testify to the fact that

we belong to Him (Gal. 3:27, 29; Col. 2:12).

100

WEDNESDAY

December 17

“In Christ”

From

the following texts, how do we understand the phrase “in

Christ”? Rom. 16:7, Gal. 3:28, Eph. 1:1, Col. 1:28, 1 Thess. 4:16.

The expression “in Christ” is used by Paul in a variety of ways. In

some instances Paul uses “in Christ” to refer to something that God

does in Christ. For instance, “God was reconciling the world to him-

self in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:19, NIV). Here the phrase conveys two main

ideas; namely, that Christ is God’s exclusive instrument of reconcilia-

tion and that reconciliation is located in the person and work of Christ.

The implication is that we can enjoy it only in union with Him. In fact,

all the benefits of salvation found in the sacrifice of Christ are avail-

able to us only in Him. These include grace (Eph. 1:2), the gift of eter-

nal life (Rom. 6:23), God’s call to a holy life (Phil. 3:14), election

(Eph. 1:4), redemption (Col. 1:14), justification (Gal. 2:17), forgive-

ness (Eph. 4:32), and sanctification (1 Cor. 1:2). In Him we were cre-

ated for good works (Eph. 2:10), we have access to God (Eph. 3:12),

we are now seated in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6), we have an inheri-

tance (Eph. 1:10, 11), we are triumphant (2 Cor. 2:14), we can do all

things (Phil. 4:13), we are rooted and built up (Col. 2:7). All of these

and much more are ours only in union with Christ.

The phrase is also used to indicate that everything the Christian

does is done in union with Him: We rejoice in Him (Phil. 3:1), boast

and glory in Him (Rom. 15:17), stand firm in Him (Phil. 4:1), are

strong in Him (Eph. 6:10), and do works of faith in Him (Gal. 5:6).

The phrase “in Christ” also addresses one of the most damaging

effects of sin. Sin decentralized and disoriented us, placing us under

the controlling influence of evil. Christ is now our original center of

existence and orients everything that we are and do. That center is now

located outside us, in Christ, and it is in Him that we come to know

ourselves and the glorious destiny prepared for us. Everything we do

is to be determined by our union with Him, not by selfish concerns.

Go back and look over all those things that we have been given

in Christ and then ask yourself, Am I availing myself of all that

we have been promised through Christ? If not, why not?

101

THURSDAY

December 18

In Christ: The Spirit and the Church

Study

Romans 8:9, read the following comments, and then try to

explain in your own words the meaning of the passage.

There is a very close connection between the Spirit and Christ.

Several ideas in Romans 8:9 deserve some attention. First, there is a

contrast between being in the flesh and being in the Spirit. Believers

are not in the flesh; that is, they are not controlled by their fallen

nature, not in a state of rebellion against God and unable to submit to

the divine will (vss. 6–8). They are, rather, in the Spirit; that is, they

are spiritually alive (vs. 10) and have become children of God (vs. 14),

and sin does not rule over them. The passage describes two incompat-

ible ways of life: One belongs to the old creature and the other to the

new creation, the new humanity in Christ.

Second, being in the Spirit means that one belongs to Christ. This

indicates that to be in union with Christ is synonymous with being in

the Spirit. The Spirit and Christ are not being equated, but it is sug-

gested that Christ relates to believers through the Spirit. Union with

Him is union with the Spirit. The gifts that are ours in Christ are also

said to be in the Spirit. For instance, we are justified and sanctified by

the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:11), we have “righteousness, peace and joy in the

Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17, NIV), and we have fellowship in both the

Spirit and Christ (1 Cor. 1:9, Phil. 2:1).

It’s also crucial to remember that union with Christ through baptism

cannot be separated from union to the body of Christ, the church. To

be baptized into Christ is at the same time to be “baptized by one

Spirit into one body”—namely, the church (1 Cor. 12:13, NIV). The

image of the church as the body of Christ designates the unity and the

interdependence of believers with one another and with Christ. Such

union is reflected or manifested in a life lived in Christ/in the Spirit.

The members of the church often are identified as those who are “in

Christ,” indicating that sometimes the phrase simply means “to be a

Christian” in the sense of living a life totally determined by what

Christ has done for them.

Look at your life in the past 24 hours. What practical evidence

exists that you are living “in Christ”? How is your union with

Christ reflected in the way you relate to other church members

who are also part of the body of Christ?

102

FRIDAY

December 19

Further Study:

“Christ gave to humanity an existence out of Himself.

To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race into oneness

with divinity, is the work of redemption. Christ took human nature

that men might be one with Him as He is one with the Father, that God

may love man as He loves His only-begotten Son, that men may be

partakers of the divine nature, and be complete in Him.”—Ellen G.

White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 251.

Are you in Christ? Not if you do not acknowledge yourselves erring,

helpless, condemned sinners. Not if you are exalting and glorifying self.

If there is any good in you, it is wholly attributable to the mercy of a

compassionate Saviour. Your birth, your reputation, your wealth, your

talents, your virtues, your piety, your philanthropy, or anything else in

you or connected with you, will not form a bond of union between your

soul and Christ. Your connection with the church . . . will be of no avail

unless you believe in Christ. It is not enough to believe about Him; you

must believe in Him. You must rely wholly upon His saving grace.”

—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, pp. 48, 49.

Discussion Questions:

● At the present time the new and the old creations coexist in us.

How do you, day by day, experience the reality of these two cre-

ations? Which one comes most naturally and easily to the sur-

face, and why?

● Scripture promises a new heaven and a new earth; that is, all

that’s here is going to be swept away, gone forever. How should

the awareness of the temporality of all things help us set priori-

ties in our lives?

● Describe in practical terms what it means for you to be “in

Christ.” How does that experience impinge on the way you relate

to God and to others?

● How should the image of the church as the body of Christ

impact the quality of the life of the church? What is it that keeps

the members together as one body in Christ? Col. 3:14. How can

you better contribute to the unity of the church in its message

and mission?

Summary:

Adam, through his sin, initiated a humanity separated

from God. Christ came in union with God, overcame the enemy, died

for our sins, and instituted a new humanity, one in union with God free

from the enslaving powers of sin and death. We are by nature part of

the old humanity but become members of the new through faith in

Him. Thus, we begin a new life in union with Jesus and His church.

tor

INSIDE

103

Power of Forgiveness

by MEENAL THIRUPDUVANAM

I grew up in a traditional Indian home and was married when I was 15.

We had three children when my husband decided to leave India and work

abroad. He said he could earn more money in a month than he could earn in

India in a year, so I agreed. But he stayed away for 12 years and never once

sent us money. I struggled to feed the children. Then I learned that my hus-

band was wasting his money on gambling, drinking, and lavish living.

I visited every temple in the area asking the gods to send my husband

home, but nothing worked. My mind wasn’t at peace as I watched my chil-

dren suffer for lack of food. They attended school and worked hard, but still

we lacked money.

I moved to a larger town where wages were higher, for the children’s

tuition had increased, and they needed school supplies and books. After

years of struggle, my children completed their education and married. At

last life became a little easier.

Then I learned that my husband had returned to India and was living in

my former town. People there knew where we were, but he did not look for

me. I went to his home and offered him money to return home and unite

with the family once more. He came to live in my home, but he drank heav-

ily and worked little.

Some lay people held evangelistic meetings near my home, and I went. I

was impressed by the message I heard and by the love I saw in the eyes of the

young couple who led the meetings.

My husband did not want me to attend the meetings and even hid my Bible

from me. This irritated me, but I was learning to be patient and calm with him

in spite of his criticism.

I started attending the Adventist church, but I wanted to wait to be baptized

until my husband was ready. He told me he might become an Adventist some-

day, but I should not wait. So I was baptized.

I know my husband watches my life and sees

the difference Jesus makes. He stopped drinking

and chewing betel nut, and sometimes he

attends church with me. My neighbors tell me

that since I have become a Christian I am more

loving and kind than I was before.

I thank God for giving me a new heart, a heart

that can love my husband and share my faith

with others. And I thank the believers who give

their mission offerings every week so that peo-

ple like me can hear the message of God’s love.

MEENAL THIRUPDUVANAM lives near Madurai, India.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

104

L ESSON

*December 20–26

Atonement and Universal

Harmony

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Dan. 8:13, 14; 1 Cor. 4:5;

15:51–54; Heb. 9:23; Rev. 20:1–4, 11–15; 22:3–6.

Memory Text:

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne say-

ing, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with

them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them

and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There

will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old

order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3, 4, NIV).

Key Thought:

To look at how God will consummate our salva-

tion in Christ and restore harmony to the universe.

hrist’s work of salvation in our behalf will reach its ultimate

goal when the earth will be fully reintegrated into the loving

harmony and safety of the universal kingdom of God. The Lord

is, even now, transforming sinners into saints who will one day popu-

late this kingdom. His redemptive plan includes the transformation of

society and nature through an act of re-creation that will also bring the

cosmic conflict to an end. The Lord alone will establish that ideal

society, one ruled by the love and justice of a God who sent His Son

to die for sinful creatures, and He did it all in order to make it possi-

ble for these sinful creatures to be part of His universal and eternal

kingdom one day. This process, before being fulfilled, will include the

ultimate eradication of all evil.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 27.

105

SUNDAY

December 21

Universal Cleansing

The restoration of God’s creation to its original condition, once free

from sin and uncleanliness, was represented in the Day of Atonement

ritual. On that day the high priest came closer to the presence of God

than on any other day of the year. The daily cleansing of the people

that day reached its consummation and therefore pointed to the time

when the whole universe will be free from sin.

How

does Daniel describe the final triumph of God over the forces of

evil? Dan. 8:13, 14.

____________________________________________________________________

Daniel uses Day of Atonement symbolism to describe the consum-

mation of God’s redemptive work in Christ. The heavenly temple is

where God has been—through the mediation of Christ—dealing with

the sin problem. This work of mediation will come to an end through

the final cosmic cleansing from sin and rebellious sinners—a process

that began at the end of the 2,300 “days.” This cleansing is associated

with God’s end-time judgment. In Daniel 7 this work of judgment takes

place before His angelic host (Dan. 7:9, 10, 22) in the context of a

court of law, showing that their final destruction has a legal foundation.

How

does the high-priestly work of mediation and judgment in the

Old Testament find its fulfillment in Christ’s mediation? Heb.

9:23.

The cleansing power of the sacrifice of Christ has also a future

expression, represented in the cleansing ritual performed by the

Levitical high priest during the Day of Atonement in the earthly sanc-

tuary. In fact, Christ’s work of mediation reaches its climax in the

cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, which is His work of judgment.

By referring to the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, Hebrews

points back to the cleansing effectiveness of the sacrifice of Christ

while pointing forward to its ultimate completion in the experience of

His faithful people at the Second Coming (Heb. 9:28). This cleansing

also looks forw

ard to the establishment of the kingdom of God (Heb.

12:28), when all the enemies of Christ, w

ho have already been

defeated (Heb. 2:14), will “be made his footstool” (Heb. 10:13, NIV).

This cleansing will result in an executive judgment “that will consume

the enemies of God” (vs. 27, NIV), an act that will be the final cleans-

ing of the universe from the presence of sin and evil.

106

MONDAY

December 22

Vindication of God’s People

Read

1 Corinthians 15:51–54 and Hebrews 9:27, 28. What is being de-

scribed here, and what hope does it offer us?

____________________________________________________________________

The realization of our ultimate hope in Christ consists, first, in the

radical transformation of human nature (1 Cor. 15:53), when we go

from our corrupted and disfigured self to our true self, one no longer

distorted and perverted by sin. We will be rid, too, of our wretched

mortality.

Second, the realization of our hope at the Second Coming will con-

sist in our being removed from the presence of evil in all its forms.

This will lead to a new mode of existence, one permanently detached

from the sphere of sin. Removed from the sinful social conditions that

predominate all societies and cultures, we will be restored to the con-

ditions originally created by God for the human race.

Third, the realization of the Christian hope at the return of Christ will

consist of a permanent, unhindered, and visible access to our Savior.

Believers look forward to a time when they will exist in the immediate

presence of the Savior, never to be separated again (1 Thess. 4:17). This

permanent union with our Lord and Redeemer will enrich the quality

of human life in dimensions that we cannot even begin to anticipate

now.

Finally, the consummation of the Adventist hope at the Second

Coming will also consist of a harmonious social interaction. That will

be a moment of reunion, a reencounter. The separation from loved

ones occasioned by the power of death comes to an end through the

re-creative power of the Savior (1 Cor. 15:54–57). The individual hope

merges here with the collective hope of those who, throughout the

ages, died in Christ while embracing the promises of God. This is the

consummation of our reconciliation and will not be threatened by the

presence of sin.

Why are all of the promises described above so important to us?

What would our faith be without them? Why must our hope be

“other-worldly”; that is, beyond anything that this present world

offers, no matter how much good we seek to do here and now?

107

TUESDAY

December 23

Judging the Evil Powers and the

Wicked

When

and how will God deal with the phenomenon of sin in His

rebellious creatures? 1 Cor. 4:5, 6:3, Rev. 20:1–4.

The resolution of the sin problem takes place in stages because of

the complexity of the problem of sin and God’s interest in revealing to

the universe His justice. First of all, in the Bible the millennium is an

indispensable event that will lead to a cosmic revelation of God’s jus-

tice, and it will result in the full reconciliation of all the things on

earth and in heaven (Col. 1:20).

The millennium indicates that at the Second Coming the cosmos is

not yet ready for the annihilation of unrepentant sinners, of Satan, and

of his fallen angels. The extinction of a fragment of God’s intelligent

creation must take place at the appropriate moment, when it will result

in the healing of the universe and the restoration of perfect harmony.

Otherwise, the result could be a fragmentation deeper than the one

that Satan first caused. The millennium provides the needed time to

create universal support for God’s solution to the great controversy.

Second, the millennium is a time of cosmic reflection and analysis.

Time will be spent, by both the redeemed and Satan, reviewing the

results of the great controversy. Satan and his angels, imprisoned on a

desolated planet, will have plenty of time to think about what they

have done. Together Satan and his angels will reflect on the results of

their rebellion against the loving government of God. This introspec-

tion will contribute to the reconciliation of the universe.

Third, the reflection in heaven takes place in the setting of the judg-

ment of the wicked (1 Cor. 6:2, 3; Rev. 20:4). The redeemed ones will

join the heavenly court and will participate in the examination of the

lives of those who persisted in their rebellion against God. They will

reign with Christ for one thousand years, in the sense that they will

participate with Him in His judicial capacity. They can witness in the

throne room of the universe the fact that God did all He could do to

save repentant sinners and that the lost should now assume responsi-

bility for their decisions. In short, we will all be convinced of the

rightness of God’s final actions toward the lost.

What does it tell us about the character of God given that He

will ha

ve this whole process unfold before the final destruction

of the lost? How can you take this knowledge of God’s charac-

ter and apply it to your life today, in that you can learn to trust

Him in all things, no matter how bad they are now?

108

WEDNESDAY

December 24

Cosmic Reconciliation

How

does the Bible describe the final resolution of the problem of sin

in the universe? Rev. 20:11–15, 22:3–6.

Biblical hope embraces the universe, and it anticipates the moment

when the reconciliation obtained through the blood of the Lamb will

reach universal dimensions. This will happen at the end of the millen-

nium, when the wicked are restored to life and Satan prepares to fight

against God and His people in a last-ditch effort to gain the supremacy

he’s always wanted. But it will be precisely after the millennium, when

all the questions have been answered to the satisfaction of the

redeemed, that the enemies of God will be confronted with the record

of their sin and rebellion. At this time the conclusion reached by the

heavenly family during their reflections in the millennial kingdom

will coincide with the conclusion reached by the forces of evil on

earth. There, before the throne of God, God’s justice and love will be

publicly acknowledged by all the parties involved, including Satan, his

angels, and the lost, who will publicly and voluntarily recognize that

they were fighting for the wrong cause. They all will confess the righ-

teousness of God, acknowledge the Lordship of Christ, and accept the

divine sentence pronounced against them by the righteous One (Phil.

2:9–11), thus admitting that they deserve to die. This is the verdict

reached by the people of God during the millennial judgment. The

whole universe is finally in perfect agreement: The forces of evil must

be eradicated. At that time the universe will be cleansed from any

doubts there may have been concerning the justice and love of God,

and every intelligent creature will be united in praising God’s love and

justice.

The evidence against the lost will be so overwhelming that even

“Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfitted him for heaven.

He has trained his powers to war against God; the purity, peace, and

harmony of heaven would be to him supreme torture. His accusations

against the mercy and justice of God are now silenced. The reproach

which he has endeavored to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon him-

self. And now Satan bows down and confesses the justice of his sen-

tence. . . . With all the facts of the great controversy in view, the whole

universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare: ‘Just and

true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.’ ”—Ellen G. White, The Great

Controversy, pp. 670, 671.

Read 1 Corinthians 4:5. How can you learn to trust the promise

found there?

109

THURSDAY

December 25

The Triumph of God’s Love

However much we anticipate our new existence, we for now, know-

ing only a world of sin and death, find it hard to imagine what one

without those things would be like.

Read

1 Corinthians 13:9–13. What is Paul saying to us here?

____________________________________________________________________

“To dwell forever in this home of the blest, to bear in soul, body, and

spirit, not the dark traces of sin and the curse, but the perfect likeness

of our Creator, and through ceaseless ages to advance in wisdom, in

knowledge and holiness, ever exploring new fields of thought, ever

finding new wonders and new glories, ever increasing in capacity to

know and to enjoy and to love, and knowing that there is still beyond

us joy and love, and wisdom infinite—such is the object to which the

Christian hope is pointing.”—Ellen G. White, Healthful Living,

p. 299. We eagerly wait for the moment when “every faculty will be

developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge

will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest

enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached,

the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to

surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh

objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.”—Ellen G.

White, The Great Controversy, p. 677.

Such hope only can imagine the human race ranging “from world to

world” and employing much of their time “in searching out the mys-

teries of redemption. And throughout the whole stretch of eternity, this

subject will be continually opening to their minds.”—Ellen G. White

Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 990. Nothing will

bring more joy to the redeemed ones than exploring the mystery of

their salvation, the significance of the cross of Christ. The glorious

subject of the atonement will keep on challenging our deepest intel-

lectual and spiritual capacities throughout eternity as we attempt to

gain a more complete understanding of the love of God revealed on

the cross.

How much time do you spend dwelling on the Cross? What use-

less thing could you do without, using that time instead to con-

template what we have been given in Jesus through the Cross?

110

FRIDAY

December 26

Further Study:

“Shall we not then exalt the cross of Christ? The

angels ascribe honor and glory to Christ, for even they are not secure

except by looking to the sufferings of the Son of God. It is through the

efficacy of the cross that the angels of heaven are guarded from apos-

tasy. Without the cross they would be no more secure against evil than

were the angels before the fall of Satan. Angelic perfection failed in

heaven. Human perfection failed in Eden, the paradise of bliss. All

who wish for security in earth or heaven must look to the Lamb of

God. The plan of salvation, making manifest the justice and love of

God, provides an eternal safeguard against defection in unfallen

worlds, as well as among those who shall be redeemed by the blood of

the Lamb. Our only hope is perfect trust in the blood of Him who can

save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. The death of

Christ on the cross of Calvary is our only hope in this world, and it

will be our theme in the world to come. Oh, we do not comprehend

the value of the atonement! If we did, we would talk more about it. The

gift of God in his beloved Son was the expression of an incompre-

hensible love. It was the utmost that God could do to preserve the

honor of his law, and still save the transgressor.”—Ellen G. White,

Signs of the Times, December 30, 1889.

Discussion Questions:

● Dwell on the implications of Ellen White’s words that even the

angels are not secure except by looking at the Cross. What does

that mean? What should that tell us about how central the Cross

should be to our daily lives and walk with the Lord now?

● Though our ultimate hope is other-worldly, how should this

hope impact how we live here; that is, in how we seek to better

live for others here?

● Think about what God offers us. How foolish, how incredibly

short-sighted, to squander that hope on anything that this life

offers us. How can you learn to wean yourself away from the

things of this world that could jeopardize your hope of a new life

in God’s eternal kingdom?

Summary:

The Day of Atonement pointed to the consummation of

Christ’s work of salvation. It will result in the cleansing of the universe

from sin and evil. That consummation begins with the vindication of

the people of God and their removal from the presence of sin and

Satan. The cosmic impact of the problem of sin will be dealt with

through the millennial judgment and will result in the extermination

of the forces of evil. After that, there will be a permanent union with

God and the heavenly family, all made possible only through the aton-

ing death of Christ. God’s love will be triumphant.

tor

INSIDE

111

Tricked Into the Truth

by AUGUSTINA APPIAGYEI

Growing up in Ghana, I attended church with my family. Then my father

said, “Augustina, I want you to attend the Adventist church.”

I knew that Adventists had helped our community during a famine, and

I had met some Adventists who had visited our house, but I had never

attended their church. However, my father asked me to go, so I started

worshiping with Adventists on Saturday. I did not know it at the time, but

my stepmother had wanted me to stay home from church on Sunday to

clean the house and prepare dinner for the family after church. My father

wanted me in church, so he suggested the Adventist church.

I was welcomed warmly at the Adventist church, and I liked the way the

people studied the Bible. The only thing I didn’t understand was the

Sabbath. If the Sabbath was still a binding commandment, then I wanted

to obey.

My parents wanted me to work after church on Sabbaths, but as I real-

ized that the Sabbath was truly God’s binding appointment with His peo-

ple, I finished my work on Friday before sundown and stayed at church all

day on Sabbath. My parents didn’t understand why I suddenly wanted to

spend the entire day in church.

I didn’t mind preparing my family’s meals on Sunday, for it was no

longer a special day to me. And I hoped that as they saw my willingness

to work for them, they would allow me to keep the Sabbath in peace. The

arrangement worked well most of the time.

I continued cooking and cleaning for my family until I was married a

few years later to a fine Adventist man. Sadly, my husband died, leaving

me with four young children. But my faith is strong, and I have the love

and support of my church family to see me through. Church members are

even paying the school fees for my two eldest

children.

My parents tricked me into attending the

Adventist church, but God turned the trick

into a blessing. For in this church I found

more than a message of truth; I found a fam-

ily to love.

Your mission offerings help bring people to

the feet of Jesus. Thank you for your gen-

erosity.

AUGUSTINA APPIAGYEI (left) lives in Kumasi, Ghana.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

2009

112

Bible Study Guide for the First Quarter

A great deal of discussion and debate have centered around the

prophetic gift and inspiration throughout church history and within

the Seventh-day Adventist Church. How were prophets inspired? How

do inspiration and revelation work? How much, if any, of culture and

personal views appear in the writings of the prophets? In our study

this quarter, we will attempt to examine some of these questions.

While examining inspiration and revelation, we will also be

reminded of our Lord Jesus Christ’s great sacrifice on the cross to jus-

tify us before Him. This is the very nature of the God we serve and

seek to reveal in this Bible study guide

Lesson 1

—Heaven’s Means of Communication

The Week at a Glance:

SUNDAY: In the Beginning (Gen. 3:8)

Monday: In Nature (Ps. 19:1-6, 33:6-9)

TUESDAY: Through Prophets (1 Sam. 23:2, Jer. 1:5, Hos. 4:1)

WEDNESDAY: Through the Word (Matt. 1:22; 2:15, 17; 4:14)

THURSDAY: Through Christ (John 1:9)

Memory Text—

Hebrews 1:1, 2

Sabbath Gem:

God reveals His power and purpose through

nature, conscience, Scripture, and the prophets. However, the most

powerful way He chose to reveal Himself was through His son Jesus.

Lesson 2

—The Prophetic Gift

The Week at a Glance:

SUNDAY: Patriarch and Prophet (Gen. 20:7)

Monday: The Prophet of the Exodus (Deut. 34:10)

TUESDAY: Prophets in Israel (Deut. 18:15)

WEDNESDAY: Prophetesses in Israel (Exod. 15:20, 21; Judg. 4:4-10)

THURSDAY: New Testament Prophets (Luke 1:67; John 1:6, 7)

Memory Text—

Numbers 12:6

Sabbath Gem:

Throughout the centuries, the Lord has been able

to use prophets in a special way because of their personal relation-

ship with Him.

Lessons for the Visually Impaired

The regular Adult Sabbath School

Bible Study Guide is available free each month in braille and on audiocassette to

sight-impaired and physically handicapped persons who cannot read normal ink

print.

This includes individuals who, because of arthritis, multiple sclerosis, paralysis,

accident, and so forth, cannot hold or focus on normal ink-print publications. Contact

Christian Record Services, Box 6097, Lincoln, NE 68506-0097.